The End is Where we Start From
by Danielle Shepherd
Summary: A crime wave hits Fenchurch. With nothing to connect the crimes but the notes left at the crime scene CID have no idea who's behind it. Who's leaving the notes? What do they have to do with the past? And what is the significance of Alex's recurring dream?
1. Chapter 1

**This is the sequel to "The Long Way Home" and takes place about 3 months after the end of that. But you don't need to have read that to understand this fanfic. If you're wondering about the title it will all make sense by the end of the fanfic. The idea for the title came to me during the planning stages as I already know how this is going to end. It also shares it's name with track 31 on the soundtrack for series 1 and 2 of Torchwood. Anyway enough of my rambling and on with the story. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Ashes to Ashes. Really wish I did though.**

* * *

Chapter One

June 1983

_The area surrounding her was dark and dingy. The blankets that she was sat on had clearly seen better days and judging by the smell she wouldn't be at all surprised if there was some mould festering away in the corners of the small 7 foot by 7 room she now found herself being held captive in. The only light came from the small window above her head which was directly opposite the door. There was nothing in this room besides the blankets, no shelves, no inlets, nothing. She felt trapped - and that was not a good thing. Despite the window she was still getting the same feelings of claustrophobia that she'd had a few times before. The floor beneath her swayed slightly and she realised that she was on a boat. She'd never been good on boats - moving ones at least. She remembered being sick over her father once on a ferry to France. She felt a wave of nausea sweep over her and some bile rise up into her throat and she swallowed it back down. She would not give her captor the satisfaction of knowing how this situation was affecting her. As she looked down at the ropes binding her arms and legs together and resigned herself to the fact that she could be stuck here for a very long time. There was no point in screaming as the grotty rag gagging her would muffle any attempts. As she felt the tears well up she realised that this could be how it all ended. It could all end here in a small, dark room, on a boat, with no one coming to her rescue. Not this time. She'd never felt more alone. She'd been told once before that if she ever had any problems or needed any help at all she'd have to is call the Gene Genie but even that hadn't worked. No one was coming. The room grew darker as the day drew to a close and the night began it's reign. She could hear muffled shouting above her, followed by a bang before she heard the footsteps. The footsteps that were getting closer to the door. She looked up as the door opened. She couldn't tell who it was but she guessed it was her captor by the cruel sneer she could make out on his face._

"_Now then," he said. She recognised the voice but she couldn't place it. "How about I tell you a story? How about I tell you the one about the man who…"_

_But she never found out how that sentence ended as there was another loud bang before everything went black…_

**********************************************************

Alex Drake awoke with a start and sat bolt upright. She looked around the room and realised that it had all been a dream which surprised her as it had been so sensory, so vivid. She was sure that the dream held some significance but she wasn't sure as to how or why it was significant. This didn't surprise her. She'd been back in 1983 for three months and her memories and knowledge of her previous life - as she referred to it - had faded. The only things she could really remember were Molly and Evan. She couldn't remember what they looked like or how they spoke but she could remember them in the same way that you remember a long lost childhood friend. She looked at the clock beside the bed and saw that it was half past one in the morning. She'd been asleep for a grand total of two hours.

"No wonder I feel like crap," she muttered before lying back down and trying to go back to sleep.

She'd been trying to drift off for five minutes when she felt a pair of arms slide around her waist and pull her close. After a dream like the one she'd just had, any normal person would be scared witless, but she smelt the comforting mix of whiskey, fags and what Gene charmingly called "man stink" and immediately knew she was safe. Safe in the knowledge that - unlike the Alex in her dream - if she ever needed him, he would be there before she'd even calling.

"Love you Alex," he muttered into her hair still half asleep. She smiled to herself, he rarely said it but she never doubted him for a second and knew that when he did say it he meant it. It wasn't long before she fell asleep once more. This time instead of being plagued by dreams about being tied up in a small room which did nothing to help her claustrophobia, she had very pleasant dreams involving her and the man sleeping next to her putting the desk in his office to good use.

* * *

"Bloody hell Bolls, what yeh doing in there?" Gene called in the direction of the bathroom "We need to get going."

"We work over the road, it will take us roughly three minutes to walk to the station," she called back. Gene rolled his eyes, they did the same routine every morning: it would take him all of 10 minutes to get ready whereas it would Alex at least half an hour. He couldn't believe he'd just signed himself up for this a lifetime of this.

Meanwhile, Alex was looking in the mirror making sure her make up was just right. She hated having to go to all this trouble in the mornings but the girly side of her loved it. It was the same girly side that kept bringing memories of the night Gene had proposed to the front of her mind. It had been unexpected and in a way unromantic. If she was honest she wouldn't have expected anything different from him.

* * *

It had been a lovely ceremony, traditional with a few twists that definitely had Shaz's name written all over them. Alex had shed a few tears at which Gene had rolled his eyes before stifling a laugh at Ray who also appeared to be tearing up.

"I wonder if they're really happy," Alex said as she watched Chris twirl Shaz around the dance floor.

"Course they are , look at them, smiling like idiots." Gene replied

"No I mean deep down if they are really happy with their wedding."

"What are yeh on about?"

"When I married Pete, I had the perfect fairytale wedding with a man I thought was Prince Charming. I seemed happy but it was only my superficial side that was happy. The real me would've been happy with something like a registry office and a few drinks down the local afterwards." she replied "Of course the fairytale wedding doesn't always end in happy ever after. I hope it does end in happy ever after for them." she added taking a sip of her champagne.

"Christ, you're a right barrel of laughs aren't yeh?"

"Well when 16 months after the wedding you're getting a divorce it's easy to be pessimistic."

"Not bitter about marriage are yeh Bolls?"

"No just weary." she replied staring morosely into her glass of champagne.

Later that night, they were led in bed in a tangle of sheets and limbs in a post coital haze.

"Alex?"

"Hmm," she replied.

"Marry me."

She didn't know how to react to that and ended up laughing "Gene Hunt did you just ask me to marry you?"

"That's charming, I propose and you laugh in my face."

"No, I'm not laughing at you," she replied quickly employing damage control "It's just, you caught me off guard and I must admit, I never thought I would ever hear you say those words."

"So will yeh then?" he asked looking straight into her eyes.

"Will I what?"

"You know…marry me?"

"Yes I will." she replied pressing her lips to his.

* * *

She was snapped out of her thoughts by Gene yelling at her once more.

"Bolls, come the fuck on."

She rolled her eyes and checked her make up in the mirror one last time before leaving the bathroom. She walked into the living room and sat down on the sofa to pull her boots on before walking into the kitchen.

"Now what yeh doing?" he asked incredulously as he watched her open a cupboard.

"Getting a drink," she replied trying to keep the smile out of her face. She was only taking her time to wind him up.

"We do not have the bloody time for you to get a drink. You can make one at work…in fact you can make me one aswell." he said " Now come on, the DCI can't arrive later than the rest of CID and that goes for you aswell." he added opening the front door.

"Would your desire to get to work quickly have anything to do with the fact that Chris and Shaz are due back from their honeymoon today and you and Ray are planning to tease him if he's late?" she asked

"Yes it would," he replied hating how intuitive Alex could sometimes be. "Now mush," he added waving in the direction of the hallway. She flicked two fingers at him playfully before walking out the door.

*******************************

"You know this taking half an hour to get ready in the mornings will have to stop when we get married," he said teasingly as they stepped out into the mid-June early morning sunshine.

"It's not official, I can still call it off." she replied.

"What the bloody hell do yeh mean it's not official?" he asked "I asked, you said yes, it's official."

"I'd hardly call it a proper proposal,"

"Still official though."

"I see no ring on my left hand," Alex replied "Therefore it's not official," she added removing her hand from his and waving it in front of him to emphasise her point. "So any male who sees me, will see that there's no ring and therefore think it's open season on nailing Alex Drake."

"If anyone tries it on with yeh, I'll shoot them," he said losing any hint of teasing from his voice.

"Or alternatively you could just invite every male to watch you shag me on the bar at Luigi's" she retorted icily before shooting one of her "stop being so jealous and possessive" looks at him and walking into the station.

As he watched her walk away, he realised that she had a point. In their line of work they encountered many people and what she'd said had struck a nerve. Anyone could think she was a single woman. He knew what he had to do. It was time he called in that favour from David Green.

*****************************************************

Several hours later, the entire CID were bored. There was virtually nothing to do. Chris and Shaz were looking through their wedding photos. Ray had gone out to buy some cigarettes and Alex was wondering where Gene had gone. He'd come in five minutes after her, walked straight into his office, then an hour later walked back out, gave orders that she was in charge until he got back and then left.

"What do you reckon is going on between DI Drake and the Guv?" Chris asked Shaz.

"How do you mean?" she replied

"Well they've barely said two words to each other this morning and Ray said earlier he'd seen them outside the station having what looked like a heated discussion before she walked into the station with him not following."

"I really don't think it's any of our business, Chris." she said picking up the photos and walking over to Alex's desk. "Would you like to see the pictures ma'am?" she asked "There's a really nice one of you and the Guv."

"Maybe later Shaz," Alex replied giving the young WPC a smile before returning to the file she was looking at.

She looked up as the doors to CID opened and saw Gene walk in. he stopped at her desk and was about to say something when Ray burst in.

"Guv, plod just radioed in. They found a body in the park opposite St Marks Church." he said "By the sounds in the background, it's a right nasty one."

* * *

**I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up as it has yet to be written and as I have just enrolled for my second year at University it might be a while before chapter 2 makes an appearence.**

**All reviews welcome. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry, that this has taken me a while to actually update this fic, but computer problems and university really don't mix. Anyway, thanks to everyone who reviewed chapter 1, I'm glad you liked it. Here's the second chapter. **

* * *

Chapter Two

No sooner had the words left Ray's mouth than Gene was out the door with Chris, Ray and Alex close behind him.

"How come you know that uniform found a body?" Alex asked Ray as they walked through reception.

"I had come back from getting fags when I heard 'em call through to Viv and I ran straight to CID."They all got into the Quattro and Alex had barely shut the door before Gene stepped on the brakes and sped off.

"Where did you go earlier?" Alex asked

"No where important," he replied distractedly. He really did not want to be having this conversation with Ray and Chris in the backseat. No one at the station knew that they were engaged and he wanted to keep it like that for a little while longer.

"Well, what's helpful," she said sarcastically. He usually gave her a hint of where he was going when he left her in charge. "You're my superior officer, if you're going to leave me in charge while you swan off somewhere, I'd like to think that you would tell me where you were going." she added anger beginning to course through her, she was not only his DI but his fiancée - even though by her teasing definition earlier it wasn't official - so she believed that earned her some honesty as to where he was going in case she needed him. In the rear view mirror she could see Ray and Chris exchanging smirks, for some reason watching her and Gene argue was one of their favourite past times.

"Just because we are more than colleagues, does not give you the right to know my whereabouts every second."

"I'm not saying, I need to know where you are every second," she replied "What I want to know is where you went earlier. What if we needed you? What if this shout had come in while you were out."

"I had my radio."

"What if you didn't? What then?"

"For God's sake, Alex drop it." he said focusing on the road. Out of the corner of his eye he could see her open her mouth to make a comment. "I said drop it." he growled as they pulled up at a red light. "What are you two smirking at?" he asked turning his gaze to Chris and Ray.

"Nothing Guv," Ray replied while Chris pretended to find his nails fascinating. Alex narrowed her eyes at Gene before turning to look out the passenger window as Gene sped off once more.

*********************************************

St. Marks Church was normally a twenty minute drive from Fenchurch East station but with Gene's driving it was more like a ten minute drive. As soon as they arrived at the park, Gene got out followed by Chris and Ray. The latter making comments about women coppers, as Alex hadn't gotten out of the car.

"Are you joining us Lady Bolls?" Gene asked opening the passenger door.

"What?" she asked suddenly aware that they had reached their destination. She had been lost in thought over her dream, the mini-argument just now and the fact that a few moments ago she could've sworn she'd seen the same shadowy figure from her dream reflected in the rear view mirror. But he couldn't be real, could he?

"I said are you going to be joining us? Or are you going to fairyland?"

She sighed before getting out of the car. They walked in silence to where Ray and Chris were stood by a couple of uniformed officers. Ray had a look of disgust on his face while Chris had turned a pale shade of green. They moved apart as they saw Gene and Alex approaching. Gene took one look at the body and felt sick to the stomach.

"I don't think you should look," he said turning to face Alex.

"I'm a grown woman I think I can manage to look at a dead body."

"The Guv's right boss….ma'am." Chris said, Alex noticed that he was slowly turning back to a normal colour.

"It's not pretty," Ray added lighting up before passing the lighter to Chris who had lost his.

Alex paid no heed to the warnings and proceeded to look at the body and she immediately wished she hadn't. She turned around, went to the nearest bin and promptly threw up into it.

"I told her not to look," Gene said as he watched her sink shakily onto a bench, shaking his head he turned around to face the uniformed officers. "Did you find anything on the body? Any ID?"

"Just a note Guv," the young PC replied handing the note to Gene who read it:

"_The past will return to haunt you."_

"Who d'you reckon wrote it?" Chris asked

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be stood here would I?" he replied "Right, you and Ray go door to door, see if any of the curtain twitchers saw anything. You," he said turning back to the PC's "Wait for the pathologist and tell them I want their findings by the end of next year."

"What are you going to do, Guv?" Ray asked hating the fact that once again it was him and Chris doing the donkey work.

"I, Raymondo, am going to take our esteemed lady colleague back to the station and see if her psychology bollocks will stretch to finding us a murderer." he replied before walking over to Alex who was sat with her head between her legs.

****************************************************

To say that Alex was embarrassed was an understatement. She always tried to stay calm and collected at work and throwing up in a bin in front of her colleagues was not her idea of calm and collected. However, she was not expecting to see the body of a woman - who looked vaguely familiar to Alex - with a gaping wound across her chest (about an inch above her breasts) with various mutilations to the hands and feet plus deep cuts and bruises on her arms. It was obvious that the place she'd been found had been the place she had been murdered. There had been so much blood it looked as though the grass had been bleeding. Just thinking about it made her feel sick, so she put her head between her legs.

She supposed that it was partly her own fault after all Gene, Ray and Chris had warned her not to look. She looked up at the approaching footsteps and her eyes met Gene's which were full of concern.

"You alright?" he asked gruffly.

"Yeah, I just need a few minutes." she replied. "I suppose they'll never let me live it down will they?" she asked nodding in the direction of Ray and Chris.

"Don't worry Bolls, they've seen yeh blind drunk and they haven't commented…much." he replied thinking back to Ray's birthday party two months previously. "Come on lets get you back to the station. I need to make use of the department's natural resources."

"What natural resources?" she asked as he helped her to her feet.

"Your brain an' all it's psychological goodness." he replied with a slight smile.

"Why is it you only smile when it's just me and you?" she asked cocking her head to one side and looking at him.

"Doesn't go with my persona," he replied heading towards the Quattro. "You coming?" he called over his shoulder. She didn't need telling twice and ran off after him. She caught up with him and slipped her hand into his. They got into the car and sped off unaware of the figure watching them from the bushes.

* * *

"Any ideas?" Gene asked coming up behind her.

"Well," she replied twisting in her chair to face him. "My first thought was that the note may have been left as an indication to why she was murdered but then I got a feeling of déjà vu…"

"What 'ave I told yeh 'bout speaking French?"

"Anyway" she replied ignoring his comment. "I couldn't remember if I'd worked on a similar case or if I'd read about a similar case. The notes had been lefty by someone with a grudge against the police."

"So our murderer has got a grudge against us?" he asked turning around to lean on the edge of Alex's desk.

"So it would seem," she replied "Have you pissed anyone off recently?"

"Why d'yeh automatically assume it's me who's pissed someone off?"

"Because it normally is."

"Fair point." he said "Have Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee had any luck finding us a possible ID on the body?" he asked waving in the direction of Ray and Chris who had been back at the station for an hour after a fruitless door to door and were now looking through the missing person files.

"No," she replied shaking her head. "And with no indication who could've done something like this. It's as though we've hit a wall and slid down it."

"Listen Bolls, 'bout earlier when I left yeh in charge."

"Yes."

"Well I went to see an old friend who owes me a favour…"

"Guv," Ray called across CID. "I got us a possible ID on the body."

"Who is she? And who reported her missing?" Alex asked

"Her name is Christine Swann, 35 and it was an old friend of yours who reported her missing ma'am."

"Who?" she asked trying to think how she might know the woman.

"She was reported missing by her partner, Evan White."

* * *

**So, once again we shall be seeing Mr White in the 1980's. I'm hoping to have the third chapter up soon as I have a reading week coming up at the end of October where I should have a few free days to get it written and typed up.**

**As usual all reviews welcome.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed chapter two. I'm glad that you liked it. **

**Disclaimer1: I don't own Ashes to Ashes or the characters, I am allowed to play with them as long as I put them back nicely afterwards.**

**Discliamer2: I also don't own something that Gene does later on in the chapter which I borrowed from the Twilight film (Those who have seen the film might recognise it.)**

* * *

Chapter Three

Alex could hardly believe the words that had just left Ray's mouth. She didn't think she could ever recall Evan having a partner, let alone dating anyone when she was growing up. Was that why the woman had looked familiar to her, because she'd been dating Evan? She tried to think back to those first few years after her parents death but she kept drawing a blank. She just couldn't remember anything about those first few years.

'_That's not surprising' _she thought to herself _'I blocked out most of my childhood.'_

"Yeh coming Bolly?" Gene asked breaking through her thoughts.

"Where?"

"To see that tosser White," he replied looking at her like she was losing her marbles. "I need a positive ID on the body and he is the only way to get one."

She got up, picked up her jacket and signalled for him to lead the way. As they walked through reception she noticed that Ray and Chris weren't following.

"Where are Ray and Chris?"

"They, Bolls, are waiting to until we get a positive ID then they're informing her colleagues."

"Where does she work?"

"That school on Ash Street. The same one where the Price's got blown to Kingdom Come."

Alex shut her eyes to try and stop the images that were suddenly flooding her mind: her first day back at school after her parent's had died, the school sports day where she had come first in the sprint, aswell as various school plays, concerts and fetes. Besides her younger self there had been one other constant in the images…Christine Swann. She hadn't been any teacher at the school, she had been Alex's teacher.

'_Well that explains how Evan met her,'_ she thought before shaking the image out of her head and heading outside to the Quattro.

"You alright love?" he asked as she got into the car, noticing that she'd gone pale.

"Yeah, I'm fine." she replied even though she felt the complete opposite. "Come on, lets get this over with then I could do with a stiff drink."

"I'll give yeh something stiff later."

"Is that a promise?"

"Course it bloody is," he replied as they sped off.

* * *

Pulling up outside the row of terraced houses in Kensington, Alex felt apprehensive to say the least. The last time she had seen Evan had been her last few hours in 2008, but that had been her previous life. The last time she'd seen Evan in this lifetime had been the day she had witnessed her parents get blown up for the second time. She got out of the car and looked up and down the street that she used to play in as a child. She had a sudden flash of her as a child riding a bike to the park. She shook the image out of her head and turned to face Gene.

"Nice area init." he said "I could see meself in a house round 'ere."

"You would want to live here?" Alex asked looking at him in shock. "Even though the houses are probably full of 'leftie bastards' and 'the Pimms on the lawn brigade'"

"Well I don't know 'bout you, but I don't plan on living above Luigi's for the rest of my life." he replied "Come on, lets go talk to him." he added walking down the road. Alex followed him with the image of her and Gene sat on a bench in Kensington park watching two children playing catch.

As they waited for someone to answer the door, Alex felt nervous and not just because she would be seeing Evan again.

"Promise you'll behave," she said turning to face Gene.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well the two of you never exactly saw eye to eye did you?" she replied "So, for me, just be good," she added. She began to laugh as Gene drew halo around his head but she stopped when she heard the door open. She didn't think that laughing would be appropriate given the reason why they were there.

"Alex," Evan said as he opened the door "And DCI Hunt, I must say this a surprise, if you're here to see how little Alex is doing, she's not here. She's at school."

"Actually that's not the reason that we're here. Can we come in?" Alex asked glancing at Gene out of the corner of her eye. He had his lips set in his trademark pout. Evidentially he had decided that the best way for him to behave was to keep his mouth shut.

"Of course, come in," he said stepping aside so that Gene and Alex could walk in.

As she stepped over the threshold, she began to recall childhood memories that she'd long forgotten: her 10th birthday party with all her friends, a Christmas morning where she'd come running down the stairs and out the front door into the snow covered streets. She walked into the living room and sat on the sofa next to Gene.

"So why are you here?" Evan asked "Not that it isn't nice to see you." he added looking at Alex paying little or no attention to Gene.

"We're here because you reported Christine Swann missing several days ago." Gene began trying to keep his thoughts to himself and not let his old insecurities rise.

"Have you found her? Is she alright?"

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this Evan," Alex replied "But this morning we found a body that we believe to be Christine." she added. She noticed the cracks begin to form in his carefully constructed 'no matter what happens I must stay calm' mask.

"How…" he began choking back tears "How did it happen?"

"Going by the injuries she sustained, it was clear that she had been murdered." Alex replied "If it's not too much trouble could you come with us to identify the body and then answer a few questions."

"Of course, I'll just go and call Natasha to see if she can pick up Alex from school."

"Who's Natasha?"

"The mother of one of Alex's school friends." Evan replied walking into the hallway where the phone was.

"He a suspect, Bolls?" Gene asked once Evan was out of earshot.

"No why?"

"Then why do you want to ask him some questions?"

"I've been thinking, and what if my first thought about the note was right and it was left as a hint as to why she was murdered not by someone with a grudge against the police."

"You doubting yehself Bolls?"

"Not doubting myself exactly. I just want to make sure I've covered every possibility before focusing on the grudge against the police theory."

* * *

"Now when you see the body, you may notice some cuts and bruises but don't worry, we'll get the twisted bastard that did this." Alex said as her and Gene led Evan towards the morgue. Gene held the door open and signalled for Evan to go in.

"Yeh not coming in Alex?" he asked

"No, even if it's covered. I don't think I could look at the body again." she replied.

"Ok," he said squeezing her hand and letting his hand briefly linger on hers for a few seconds before disappearing into the morgue.

She sat down in the chair opposite the door and thought back to the image that had appeared in her head earlier that afternoon of her and Gene sat in Kensington park watching two girls with light brown hair and piercing eyes just like their fathers. To say that she hadn't thought about her and Gene's future would be a lie. She'd thought about it more frequently since they'd got engaged. Her only reservation about their future was whether Gene saw same images that she did, if he ever thought about their future. She was brought out of her reverie by the sound of a door opening. She looked up to see Evan walking out trying not to cry followed by Gene who was talking on his radio. She caught the tail end of the conversation

"…for God's sake be professional about it."

"I take it we got a positive ID?" she asked to which Gene nodded in reply.

"Ray and Chris are informing her colleagues as we speak."

Alex opened her mouth to say something when a stifled sob from the end of the corridor caught their attention. They turned to see Evan fighting back tears. They walked towards him and Alex placed a hand on his arm.

"I know this must be hard for you, but there are a few questions that we'd like to ask you," she said "You don't have to do it right now but it would help us greatly."

"No it's fine, if it'll help catch whoever did it."

"Do you want to come back to the station or do it back at your house?"

"The station, it'll give me a chance to collect me my thoughts before I collect Alex from her friend's house."

***********************************************************

"Now this may seem like an unusual question but did Christine have any secrets?" Alex asked "Anything in her past that she didn't want getting out?"

"Not that I know of. Why?"

"It's just we found this note by the body." Gene said showing Evan the note.

"Like I said, I can't think of anything." Evan said "Although…"

"Although what?"

"She did have this ex boyfriend who couldn't except that she'd moved on.""What was his name?"

"Darren Wallace."

"Where'd he live?"

"24 Wood Street, Flat 2B."

"Right, we'll get Ray and Chris on it." Alex said "Thank you for you help Evan, you can go," she added standing up and opening the interview room door. "If we need to get hold of you, we'll call or come round."

******************************

"I've sent Ray and Chris round to Wallace's flat," Alex said walking into Gene's office carrying a cup of coffee and a plate of biscuits "And I bought you this" she added placing the drink and biscuits on his desk before perching on the edge of it.

"Thanks," he said distractedly.

"You alright?" she asked looking at him the same way he'd looked at her earlier after she'd first seen the body.

"I've been thinking about how we've not spent any time alone today."

"That's not true, we were alone this morning and in the car earlier and if I'm not mistaken." she replied looking around and noting the blinds were drawn. "We're alone now." she added moving from the desk, into his lap and kissing him passionately.

"As much as I'm enjoying this what if one of that lot walks in?" he asked when they broke apart breathing heavily.

"Without knocking?" she replied "But if that we're too happen I'd just tell them that I was giving you a lap dance." she added with a shrug of her shoulders before kissing him again. However, sods law was in action and as soon as things were getting heated. Ray's voice crackled through the radio causing the two of them to jump apart.

"Guv."

"What?" he barked picking up the radio, while Alex stood up and tried to straighten her top even though it was only Gene could see her.

"We went round to Wallace's flat like Drake told us to…and…well you'd better come and see for yourself."

"Come on," Alex said "The sooner this is over, the sooner we can get back to important stuff."

"Fine, just give me a couple of minutes," he replied leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes. Alex let out a laugh before standing by the door. "I need to calm down Bolls and of you're stood there I won't be able to do it."She rolled her eyes before leaving his office and heading outside.

* * *

"What the bloody hell?" Gene asked walking into flat 2B and seeing Darren Wallace led on the floor with a bullet hole in his head and a pathologist knelt beside the body.

"What happened?" Alex asked looking at the body.

"When we got here there was no answer," Chris began "So Ray kicked the door down and this is what we found."

"Well at least, Christine's murders solved." Gene said. Alex - who had been looking out the window - turned to look at him.

"How?"

"Simple, he sees her, they have an argument, he launches a frenzied attack on her, accidentally kills her, can't live with the guilt so he kills himself."

"It doesn't mean the murder is solved thou…"

"Yes it does, the only suspect is dead. End of." he said cutting her off.

"It would be quite impossible for this man to have murdered that woman." the pathologist said looking up at Gene and Alex. "The woman had only been dead for a few hours when I arrived at the scene. Going by the congealed blood around the bullet hole, this man's been dead for at least 24 hours maybe a bit more."

"So our only lead in a murder enquiry is dead? Well that's just brilliant." Gene said walking out of the flat.

"What's up with 'im?" Ray asked turning to face Alex.

"Well, how would you feel having to try and solve a murder with no leads?" she replied "See you back at the station." she added before leaving.

*******************************************

Several hours later, the whole team were sat in Luigi's and as usual Gene and Alex were sat at their usual corner table.

"Cheer up," she said nudging his arm "Tomorrow's a new day, maybe we'll get a fresh lead and catch ourselves a murdering bastard."

"Why are you so optimistic?"

"Because I have to balance out your pessimism," she replied with a smile before taking a sip of wine and leaning back in her chair. Her eyes travelled over their team: Shaz watching Chris attempt to be a ninja, while the rest of the team laughed. Predictably, Ray was leading the laughing. Alex sighed Shaz had more brains than half of CID and she was definitely wasted in uniform.

"I've been thinking," she said turning to face Gene.

"Do you ever stop?"

"What?"

"Well you're always thinking."

Even though she knew he was joking she still narrowed her eyes at him before continuing "Anyway, what would you say to given Shaz more responsibility?"

"How d'you mean?"

"By maybe promoting her to CID," she replied

"Alright then."

"You're not even going to argue against it?" she asked shocked as he normally left Shaz as a tea girl.

"No, I've been thinking the same thing meself recently."

"It'll be weird though."

"How?"

"Having two DC Skeltons, it might get confusing."

"There'll be two Hunts soon."

"What makes you think, I'll take your name?" she asked

"Yeh took the name of your ex…" he replied "Anyway, you know what yeh said earlier about how the engagement wasn't official."

"Yes," she said finishing off the wine in her glass.

"What would you say to making it official?"

"And how would you plan on doing that?" she challenged as she watched him fish about in his jacket pocket.

"Do you remember earlier when I left yeh in charge," he said when he'd found what he was looking for.

"Yes,"

"Well, I went to get you this." he replied pushing a velvet box towards her.

"What's this?"

"Open it?"

She opened the box to reveal a princess cut emerald ring with three diamond baguettes on either shoulder of the emerald nestled within the red velvet folds.

"This is just a little bit gorgeous," she breathed "I love it," she said as he slid it onto her ring finger.

"Bet you're wondering how I could afford something like this aren't you?" he asked glad that the advice Shaz had given him in the kitchen earlier that morning had been a lot of help.

"Yes," she replied.

"I know an antique jeweller who owes me a favour," he replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "Is it official now?"

"I suppose so," she replied.

"Good," he said. "Oi, Luigi, bring us a bottle of champagne."

"Si, signor Hunt," he said "What is the occasion?" he asked as he bought the champagne over to them. Alex looked around and noticed that all of CID, Shaz and Viv were completely focused on them.

"DI Drake, here has just agreed to become the second Mrs Hunt."

"Oh mamma mia, signora that is wonderful news. I hope you and signor Hunt are very happy together."

"Thank you Luigi," she said smiling at him before looking at their friends and co-workers: Shaz looked extremely happy, while Chris, Viv, Ray and the rest of CID wore identical looks of shock and stunned disbelief.

"Did he get you a ring ma'am?" Shaz asked breaking the silence.

"Course, I did Skelton, I'm nothing if not proper." Gene replied while Alex held out her left hand so that Shaz could see the ring.

"You didn't have a ring when yeh proposed to Jackie Queen though Guv," Ray said pointedly.

"I know, but I did that because it was the right thing to do. However, I did it this time cos I love this woman sat right here next to me." he replied without thinking. He looked around at everyone who looked at him in shock at this admission from the Guv who normally didn't make these sort of admissions. "Come on, lets get out of here," he said to Alex who was trying not to smile.

"See you tomorrow," she said pulling on her jacket before being led out of Luigi's by Gene who shot everyone a look that clearly said 'mention this tomorrow and you're dead.'

" Ere, mate," Chris said turning to Ray "With everyone pairing off you'll have to get yourself a girl or you'll end up having to go gay." he added. Everyone laughed except Ray who punched him on the arm.

"OW!" Chris said

"Aww baby," Shaz replied rubbing a hand along Chris' arm.

"I can't believe you just said that you loved me in front of everyone." Alex said unlocking their front door. "Maybe you're going soft in your old age." she added.

"Cheeky bloody mare," he said "I'll show you who's old" he added kissing her and kicking the door shut behind them at the same time.

* * *

**So there it is chapter three. He finally got to give her the ring. I hoped you liked it. I have the next chapter semi-planned and if all goes to plan it will be a mixture of fluff, plot, fluff, plot in that order.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry it has taken me so long to get around to uploading this chapter but assignments for uni had to be done. Anyway thanks once again to everyone who has reviewed and I hope you like this next chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Ashes to Ashes or it's characters. They belong to people much richer than me.**

* * *

Chapter Four

Gene awoke the next morning with Alex curled into his side with her arm flung across his chest and her hand resting on his shoulder. It was then that he breathed a sigh of relief. He'd done the same thing every morning since they'd got together incase it had all been a dream and he was alone in his bed. He was also relieved that she hadn't walked out on him in the middle of the night, leaving nothing but a note like his ex-wife had done. He felt something cool connect with his skin and looked to see what it was. It was her ring. When he'd seen the ring in David Green's store, he knew instantly that it was the ring for her. It was beautiful and elegant which - in Gene's opinion - was the perfect description of Alex. He would've been happy to stay and watch her sleep all morning but not only did they have to go to work, nature was calling and he had to answer it. Reluctantly, he removed her arm from his chest and left the warmth of the bed. He took a last glance at her sleeping peacefully before heading towards the bathroom.

When he returned, Alex was no longer sleeping peacefully. She was tossing and turning, while calling out his name. under normal circumstances, Gene would've been quite smug but the look on her face was enough for him to know that this was not a pleasurable dream. He made his way over to the bed to try and wake her up. He didn't need to bother as a few seconds later, she sat bolt upright, blinking madly and looking around the room. He crossed the distance between him and the bed in two quick, short strides and sat down beside her.

"Just a dream. It was all just a dream." she said

"You ok?" he asked pulling her close.

"It was all a dream. A stupid, silly dream. Nothing to worry about." she replied leaning into his embrace.

"If you're sure,"

"Yes, I'm sure," she said "Gene?"

"Hmm,"

"You'll always come if I call for you won't you?" she asked needing the reassurance.

"Course I will yeh daft cow." he replied "All yeh have to do is to call the Gene Genie." he added placing a kiss on the top of her head before leaving the bedroom. As she watched him walk away, Alex couldn't help but wonder if there would come a time when she called for him and he didn't show.

* * *

"Would yeh look at this?" Ray said holding up the newspaper in Alex's direction. She looked at the headline glaring at her: 'MET PLAGUED BY GRUESOME MURDER'.

"What are those vultures on about now?" Gene asked from the doorway of his office.

"They're saying that it might be a copycat Jack the Ripper."

"I'm sorry but that's just bollocks," Alex said

"How so?"

"If the murderer wanted to be a copycat Jack the Ripper, then he would've targeted prostitutes not a school teacher, the attack and murder would've been in Whitechapel, not Fenchurch, the body would've been more grotesque and it would've happened in August not June."

"But the note said…" Ray began

"Just because the note said that 'the past will return to haunt you' does not mean that someone is trying to remind the Metropolitan Police of one it's biggest unsolved crimes."

"Yeh know hopefully there will come a day when Bolly knickers 'ere will come to understand that twisted bastards like the one who murdered Christine Swann don't always follow her psychological profiling bollocks." Gene said drawing a few sniggers from CID. Alex narrowed her eyes and readied herself to make a comeback when Viv walked in.

"Guv, someone's just called in with the description of someone acting suspiciously in St. Mark's park the other night."

"Hey, isn't that where uniform found that body yesterday." Chris said

"10 out of 10 observation Einstein," Gene replied sarcastically.

"What was the description?" Alex asked before Gene could add any more insults to Chris.

"Tall, bald and scruffy."

"Well, that could be anyone," Alex said

"But it's all we've got to go on." Gene replied.

"They also said that there was a lot of shouting and yelling."

"Was the caller male or female?" Alex asked

"Male," Viv replied "It sounded familiar…"

"But you couldn't place it," Alex said

"Yes ma'am," he said looking at Alex as did half of CID "Oh and this was on my desk this morning Guv, it's addressed to you." he added handing Gene an envelope before leaving the office. Gene retreated into his office and opened it.

"Shaz," Alex said turning to face the WPC.

"Yes ma'am."

"Could you look through the files and see if you can find anyone matching the description of tall, bald and scruffy."

"Certainly ma'am,"

"And if it's too much work get Ray and Chris to help. I'm sure they'd appreciate it." she said sharing a look with Shaz.

"Bols, in 'ere now." Gene called from his office. "Shut the door and close the blinds." he added as she walked in.

"What is it?" she asked once she had carried out his instructions.

He pointed to his desk where the envelope lay, pictures and a piece of paper were on top of it. The first few pictures were of what appeared to be Christine being murdered a judging by the point of view it was obvious that they had been taken by the murderer. But it was the following set of pictures that really caught her attention. They were all pictures of her and Gene, two were from the previous day at the crime scene in St. Marks Park, the rest were candid shots of the two of them: walking through a deserted park after a night out, their first 'official' date at an Italian bistro about two miles away from the station and the two of them kissing outside the street level door of Luigi's. she picked up the piece of paper and read what was written on it: '_Watching. Waiting. Always lurking. In t_he _shadows_'. It was written in the same hand that had written the note found by Christine's body.

"Who the hell sent this?" she asked moving around the desk so she was stood next to where he was sat.

"My guess is the same person that murdered Christine." he replied. He looked up at Alex and saw that her face was full of concern. "Don't worry love, I won't let anyone hurt you." he added pulling her down so that she was sat on his lap.

"I'm not worried about me," she replied. "I'm worried that it's someone out to get you. Someone who might make me lose you." she added in a quiet, reflective tone.

"It'll take more than a twisted, murdering bastard for you to lose me." he said placing a light kiss on her cheek. "So any ideas on who are suspect is?"

"I've got Shaz looking through the files, but whether she finds anything or not is another matter."

* * *

An hour later, Shaz and Chris had gone through the files and hadn't found anything. When Gene had found this out he'd walked back into his office, slammed the door shut before kicking his bin. No one had dared enter his office, not even Alex.

"Right you lot, listen up." Gene said stepping out of the Lion's Den. "Bols, I want you and Chris to go round to see White, see if he knows anyone who could fit the description""Roger that," Chris said

"What are you going to do?""Myself and Ray are going to knock a few heads together, see if the snouts know anything."

* * *

"Do you think Shaz would like to live around here ma'am?" Chris asked

"Not you too," she muttered before walking off down the road.

"Boss?" he called after her before running to catch up. "What did you mean 'not you too'?"

"Never mind, Chris." she replied walking up the steps to Evan's front door. "Did you just call me boss without adding ma'am on the end?" she asked turning to face Chris.

"Yeah, you don't mind do you?"

"No, Chris I don't," she replied knocking on the door.

"Hello, what can I do for you Alex?" he asked opening the door. She took one look at him and could tell he'd seen better days.

"We need to ask you something. Can we come in?"

"Of course. Please come in." he replied stepping aside so that Alex and Chris could walk in.

"So what did you want to ask me?""Do you know anyone fitting the description of tall, bald and scruffy?"

"I can't think of anyone." he replied. "Is it important?"

"Yes at this precise moment, this is the only suspect we have." Alex said "So are you absolutely sure that you don't know anyone with that description?""Positive.""Alright, well if you do think of anyone, call me at the station." Alex said handing him a piece of paper with her number on it.

"I see congratulations are in order."

"What?" Alex asked

"The ring, I take it you are engaged."

"Yes I am. Thank you."

"So who is he?"

"It's the Guv init?" Chris replied feeling left out of the conversation.

"Gene Hunt?" Evan asked bemusedly.

"Yeah, they're like CID's power couple."

"I can talk for myself Chris."

"Sorry boss.""You're seriously going to marry Gene Hunt?"

"Yes I am." she replied.

"He's not right for you."

"You're a fine one to talk."

"Meaning?"

"You had an affair with your goddaughter's mother. I don't think you qualify to give me relationship advice." she replied "Come on Chris." she added walking out of the house with Chris following.

* * *

"So how did it go?" Alex asked when she saw Ray walk into CID an hour after her and Chris had returned.

"Waste of bloody time." he replied sitting at his desk. "Not even a Hunt-style kicking could get 'em talking."

"Where is he?" she asked not needing to specify who he was as he hadn't returned to CID.

"Over in Luigi's" he replied lighting up.

"Alright," she said "I'll be back soon."

"Where yeh going?"

"To stop or esteemed leader from drinking Luigi's dry." she replied leaving CID.

As she walked into Luigi's, her eyes scanned the whole place until she saw him. He was sat at their usual table. She took one look at him and her whole heart broke for him. He looked so defeated. This was the second day running that they had failed to get a lead on Christine's murder. She noticed that he had a bottle of scotch and two glasses in front of him. He had clearly been expecting her. She sat down next to him and poured herself one.

"Did yeh ever have one of those days where it feels like everything's against yeh?" he asked looking up from the table.

"Yes I have," she replied thinking back to the day she'd tried and failed to stop her parents being blown up. "But on those days there is always something waiting to cheer you up." she added reflecting on how that same evening - after she'd realised she'd be staying longer than she had planned - the team had cheered her up just by being themselves.

"How did it go with White?"

"Not good, he didn't know anyone fitting the description."

"So we have a woman who was brutally murdered, some prat leaving notes at the crime scene and sending me pictures of the same murder as well as pictures of us and no bloody clue who the fuck is behind it."

"Come on the days not over yet. Who knows what'll happen later." she said "In more ways than one." she added a hint of playfulness and lust colouring her tone.

* * *

"Is it true ma'am?" Shaz asked when Alex and Gene walked into CID.

"Is what true?"

"Chris was telling us about the interesting time you had today at Evan White's." Ray replied

"Something you want to tell me Bols?"

"Well he…" she tailed off and looked around CID and saw them all waiting for her account of what happened. She sighed and began again. "Well he saw the ring, asked who I was marrying. When I told him who it was, he had the nerve to tell me that you weren't right for me." She added "So I told him that since he had an affair with his goddaughter's mother he couldn't give me relationship advice."

"Chris also said that once you were in the car, you called 'im an arrogant bastard."

"That sounds about right," She replied causing CID to laugh and Gene to smile. "Although I believe I actually said 'he's an arrogant bastard who could only dream to be one tenth of the man that Gene Hunt is'" she added heading into the kitchen.

She sat down in one of the chairs and sipped at her coffee. She knew that her comments had cheered Gene up no end, but he probably still wasn't totally happy.

"I thought you were friends with Evan White." a voice behind her said. She turned to see Gene stood in the door way.

"I'd hardly call him a friend…more of an acquaintance." she replied.

"Are you still going out with Shaz tomorrow?" he asked

"Yes, why?" she replied. Since she was now staying here, her and Shaz had a 'girlie' day out once a month.

"It's just, we haven't caught this little scrote yet and I want yeh to be careful."

"I will, I promise you." she replied kissing him lightly. "I will come back to Luigi's with Shaz and both of us will be in one piece." she added kissing him again.

* * *

"Oh that dress would look gorgeous on you." Shaz said as her and Alex walked past a bridal store.

Alex looked at the dress and saw that it was similar to the one she had when she'd married Pete. She suddenly found herself watching her younger self walk down the aisle on Evan's arm towards Pete. She couldn't believe how happy she looked or how quickly things had turned sour. They were fine until a couple of months after Molly had been born.

"You alright ma'am?" Shaz asked snapping Alex out of her thoughts.

"Shaz, what have I told you?" she asked.

"Sorry Alex," Shaz said. She still felt weird about calling her senior officer by her name outside of work. "Are you alright though? It's just you had a far away look in your eyes."

"That's dress," she replied pointing at it. "Reminds me of what I wore when I married Pete. Which then made me think back to how well that turned out.""I'm sorry I shouldn't have said anything." Shaz said backtracking.

"No, don't. It's not your fault. Come on let's go find somewhere to eat.

* * *

"You know how you've been married before." Shaz said "Can I ask you something?"

"Course you can."

"Me and Chris were talking some things over last night and we were wondering how long you should be married before having children?"

"Well, I suppose it's different for everyone, with Molly, it just sort of happened. It should be when the two of you are ready." Alex replied. They lapsed into companionable silence for a few moments for Shaz spoke again.

"Would you ever have more children?"

"I'd love to. I've thought about it. I've even seen what mine and Gene's children would look like, but I don't even know if he feels the same about it." Alex replied with a sigh.

"Has he given you any hints about children? Or your future as a couple?"

"No all he's said to me is that he doesn't plan on living above Luigi's forever."

"Well, that's something."

"How?"

"Well your flats alright for the two of you but not ideal for more than that. And the Guv's always struck me as someone who would love to live above a bar or within walking distance of one."

Alex thought it over while drinking her wine. "I suppose you've got a point."

* * *

As evening fell over Fenchurch, Gene was sat in Luigi's with Ray and Chris when Luigi came over.

"Signor Hunt, there is a phone call for you."

"Who is it?"

"It's the young PC. She says it's important."

Gene got up and followed Luigi towards the telephone.

"What is it Shaz?"

"Guv, we're at the hospital."

* * *

**As usual all reviews welcome.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Once again, I'd like to say thanks to everyone who's reviewed the fic so far. I'm glad you're enjoying it so far. I know I left you on a bit of a cliffhanger, you don't have to wait long before it's resolved. I promise. Anyway, here is chapter Five**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Ashes to Ashes. I'm just allowed to play with the characters as long as I put them back where I found them.**

* * *

Chapter Five

Shaz didn't even get the chance to explain why her and Alex were at hospital, before Gene hung up on her with nothing more than a gruff "we're on our way." He made is way back to the table, downed the rest of his drink, and turned to leave.

"Guv?" Ray asked

"Car. Now." he replied walking away. Ray - noticing that Chris had dozed off- threw a roll at his head to wake him up.

"What?" he asked slightly dazed, before seeing Gene and Ray leaving. He raced after them, nearly tripping over a chair in the process.

Chris had barely got into the car when Gene drove off with a squeal of tires. During the thirty minute drive to the hospital, Gene began to imagine all sorts of things that could have happened to Alex: was she hit by a car driven by this weird stalker/murderer, shot by self same stalker, was she currently hovering on that unstable precipice between life and death? He tried to shake the thoughts out of his head. He'd nearly lost her once before…well several times before, he wasn't sure how he'd cope if he lost her now. Now that they were a couple. He imagined that it would be even harder than when Sam died. '_No_' he thought to himself _'She's okay.' _he added as an afterthought. Even though he wasn't 100% sure that she was okay, it was the only thing he could cling to until he got to the hospital and knew what was going on. While Gene's mind was in a somewhat dark place, Ray and Chris were talking.

"How's it going with that bird down in uniform?" Chris asked

"She's pretending she's not interested but I know she wants me." he replied assuring himself of his prowess with the women.

When they arrived at the hospital, Gene had barely stopped the car before getting out and heading into the hospital to find Shaz, with Chris and Ray running behind him. They could tell that he was worried about Alex but they also knew that it was more than their jobs were worth to even ask him if he was worried. He walked into the main entrance and began to look for Shaz. When he saw her sat on a chair he was mildly relieved, but also a tiny bit anxious because Alex wasn't there and Shaz was holding a jumper with flecks of blood on it. A jumper, which he recognised as the one that Alex had been wearing earlier. He walked over to Shaz who looked up as she heard footsteps. Gene was relieved to see that there were no tear tracks on Shaz's face. So - he reasoned - nothing that bad could've happened.

"Guv, I didn't think that you would get here this fast."

"What's happened?" he asked

"Well me and DI Drake were walking back…

"_It's a nice evening." Shaz said as they walked down a side street not that far from Luigi's "I'm glad we decided to walk instead of getting a taxi."_

_"Me too," Alex replied "I've always loved London at this time of year." she added "How's Donna coping with Ray's advances?" she asked referring to a WPC that Ray had been trying it on with."_

_"She's coping just fine."_

_"And he still has no idea?"_

_"No," Shaz replied with a smirk._

_They walked in companionable silence until they heard a squeal of tires. They both turned to see a woman lying in the middle of the road and a flash of blue heading around the corner. Both ran towards her. The first thing that they noticed was that she had cuts on her face and bruises along her jaw, arms and legs. They could also see that part of her top had been torn and they could make out a bruise there aswell. Alex knelt down and checked the pulse._

"_Is she still breathing?" Shaz asked looking through the woman's bag trying to find an ID._

"_Yes thankfully. Any ID?" she replied _

"_No Alex." she said. _

_Alex nodded and noticed something out of the corner of her eye and she felt an uneasy feeling creep into her stomach. "Can you go and phone for an ambulance. I think I saw a phone box just down that road." she said pointing in the direction they had just come from._

"So you called for an ambulance then what?" Gene asked relieved that Alex was okay.

"When I returned, she had removed her jumper to stop the bleeding from one of the larger cuts on the woman's face. Then when we got here they told us that there was some heavy internal bleeding and that it was touch and go. Then, she told me to go and phone you at Luigi's."

"So where is she?"

"She's up on the fourth floor outside the operating theatre waiting for news."

"Is there anything else?"

"Yes guv, she found another note."

"Thanks Shaz," he said turning on his heel to go and find Alex. The three of them watched as he headed towards the lifts.

"Told yeh, she'd have 'im wrapped around her finger." Ray said.

* * *

Alex had quickly come to the decision that sitting outside an operating theatre with nothing but your thoughts was not the best place to think. She had come to this decision when she'd found herself - for the fourth time in half an hour - doubting herself. She looked at the note and shook her head. Yesterday she had dismissed the idea of a serial killer/copycat Jack the Ripper as bollocks but now she wasn't so sure. She hoped that this woman pulled through otherwise it would be two unsolved murders in the space of one week. She started playing with her engagement ring and tried to lose herself in ideas for the wedding. She heard footsteps heavy with purpose heading her way. She looked up to see Gene striding towards her. She stood up as he drew near her and engulfed her in a hug. They stood that way for a few moments before Gene pulled back a little and placed a light kiss on her lips. The kiss steadily grew more passionate with their tongues duelling and dancing.

"You were worried weren't you?" she asked when they broke apart.

"I thought something bad had happened to yeh."

"Did you let Shaz explain before you left Luigi's?"

"Er…no"

"I didn't think you would." she said sitting back down.

"Shaz said that there was a note." he said sitting down next to her. She passed it to him so he could read it:

'_2 down 5 to go. The past is returning.'_

Once it again it was written by the same person who had sent the pictures to Gene and left the note by Christine's body.

"You ok?" he asked

"Yeah I'm fine. It's just if this woman doesn't pull through it's two unsolved murders in the space of one week. The press would have a field day." she replied. Gene could tell that Alex - as much as she tried to hide it - was worried. He pulled her close just like he'd done in the vault at Edgehampton. She led her head on his shoulder in response and placed her arm across his chest before tucking her feet up on the remaining chairs.

"Don't worry, we'll get this bastard." he muttered before placing a kiss on the top of her head.

"I hope so," she replied. "I really hope so." she added. Gene tightened his grip on her and if he noticed the tears gently soaking his shirt, he didn't tell her.

* * *

Gene awoke in the early hours of the morning to find himself alone in bed. He looked around and saw that he was still in the flat above Luigi's and he began to wonder where Alex was. He thought back over the past few hours: they had waited for what seemed like ages before the surgeon had come out and told them that the woman would be okay and they'd be able to interview her tomorrow morning at the earliest. They had then returned to their flat (Chris, Ray and Shaz had left them at the hospital) and as Alex had fallen asleep on the way back he had carried her to bed - with some help to open the doors from Luigi who had been in the process of locking up. He got out of the bed and headed into the kitchen. As he stood in the doorway he couldn't help but notice how dejected she looked staring morosely into a cup of tea. He coughed to get her attention she looked up and he noticed traces of tears on her face.

"I'm sorry, did I wake you up?" she asked

"No, I was up." he replied "Look I know I've asked yeh before but are you ok?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Yeh wouldn't be up at 3am if you were okay. So what's been worrying yeh?" he asked sitting down next to her. She looked at Gene and saw that he genuinely did want to know what was worrying her and she couldn't keep giving him the same 'I'm fine' response she'd been trotting out for the past few hours. She sighed inwardly.

"Am I good?"

"Course yeh are love. Bloody fantastic yeh are."

"No I mean am I good at my job?"

"Bloody 'ell, where's this come from?"

"I don't know." she replied tears filling her eyes. "Maybe if I was as half as good as people say I am we'd have caught this person by now." she added tears now falling thick and fast.

"Bolls, come on." he said holding her tight. "You're a good copper and psychologist. Yeh smarter than most of CID put together. Would Shaz and Chris look to yeh as a mentor if yeh weren't?" he added. "And Ray - in his own way - respects yeh. We all do."

"I guess you're right." she said wiping her eyes to try and stop her tears. "I'm sorry I went to pieces on you then. I'm not normally this emotional." she added "The last time I was like this was…" she tailed off.

"Was when?"

"I'm trying to remember," she replied with a small ghost of a smile. "I think it was when my parent's died."

"Come on, lets go back to bed." he said standing up and holding out his hand to her. She smiled up at him before taking his hand and following him back to the bedroom.

An hour later, Alex still hadn't fallen asleep. Every time, she closed her eyes she kept seeing a mixture of Christine's bloodied body, the woman her and Shaz had found earlier and the creepy shadowy figure who kept imprisoning her in a small 7 foot by 7 room on a boat. Not even Gene's snoring which she normally found quite comforting could lull her into a sleep.

* * *

"I think it's very thoughtful." Shaz said in reference to Gene who had just placed a cup of tea on Alex's desk.

"The guv. Thoughtful?" Chris replied

"Yes," Shaz replied "It's the little things like that, that we appreciate,"

"Bollocks," Ray said. "Women say they like that and then when you do those little things they tell yeh to stop fussing."

"How would you know Ray?" Shaz asked "You haven't had a relationship that's lasted longer than a month."

"True, I am a love 'em and leave 'em type." he replied "While we're on the subject has Donna said anything about me."

"Yeah," Shaz replied "She says that you're a pest."

Over the other side the office, Alex was staring at the three notes (the one from Christine's body, the one sent to Gene and the most recent one.) and trying to see if there were any connections between them and maybe try to compile a psychological profile of the as yet unidentified suspect. She rubbed her eyes and took a sip of tea. She was functioning on a mere 3 hours sleep after managing to fall into a fitful sleep around 5am and had woken up at her usual time of 8. She looked over at Chris, Ray and Shaz who suddenly became interested in their work. She knew that they had been talking about her and Gene. Most likely about how he'd brought her drink. She looked at her ring as she had done at regular intervals since it had been placed there several days ago and smiled before turning her attention back to the notes. After several more attempts to make connections between the three of them she decided that it was pointless to even try as the only thing that seemed to connect them was the person who had wrote them. She stood up and walked into Gene's office.

"Have you found a connection yet?" he asked.

"No, this is someone who knows how to stay in the shadows, always on the periphery but never close enough to see who it is." she replied not merely talking about the suspect but the person in her dream aswell. Gene was about to make a comment when Shaz called her.

"Ma'am, there's a phone call for you." she said holding out Alex's phone.

"Who is it?" she asked walking towards her.

"It's Dr Andrews from the hospital."

Gene watched as she spoke to the doctor before heading back to him.

"That was Dr Andrews, he just called to say that Melanie Hale has just woken up and is fit to be interviewed."

"Who?"

"She's the woman who got assaulted yesterday." she replied "They found out her name when she woke up this morning."

"Alright, let's go interview her."

* * *

"Twice in one week," Alex said getting out of the Quattro. "Let's hope we don't have to return here before this case is over." she added slipping her hand into his.

"If we can get an ID on her attacker, we can catch 'im before he strikes again" he said squeezing her hand as they walked into the hospital.

When they reached the wards on the third floor, Alex was hit by flashbacks to several months ago when she was lying in one of the beds after Operation Rose. She shivered at the memory of Shaz telling her that there was a warrant out for Gene's arrest as he'd gone on the run after shooting her.

"Something wrong?" he asked

"This ward," she replied "Brings back memories." she added Gene nodded knowing exactly what memories she was talking about.

"Melanie Hale, which ward is she on?" Alex asked the nurse at the desk showing her warrant card. The nurse looked down a list of patients looking for the right one.

"Ward 3, Bay 2."

"Thanks."

As they walked through the wards, Alex was hit by the memory of DS Frost and DI Hamilton coming to interview her when she'd woken up. She shook her head as they approached Melanie who was staring out of the window.

"I'm DI Alex Drake and this is DCI Hunt." she said holding out her warrant card. "Is it okay for us to ask you some questions?"

"Ok," she replied turning to face them. Both Alex and Gene noticed thin lines from the cuts on her face and the bruises that were beginning to turn yellow.

"Can you remember anything about yesterday?"

"I was walking back from my Aunt's when I was grabbed from behind. I tried to scream but he put a rag in my mouth to stop me before dragging me away. He started to hit the and kick me." she replied. Alex noted that she was trying to hold her tears in. "Then he pulled out a knife. I thought…I thought he was going to kill me," she added beginning to cry.

"Melanie," Alex began. "Can you remember anything about the man who attacked you?"

"I just remember that he was well built, beefy, like a rugby player. As he was pushing me into the car. I caught a glimpse of light brown hair. I…I'm sorry." she said wiping her eyes.

"That's fine," Alex said "Take as long as you need."

"Was there anything distinctive about 'im?" Gene asked a few moments later.

"How d'you mean?"

"Did he have an accent? A scar?" Alex replied prompting her.

"Yeah, he sounded like he was from the West Country." she replied "I'm sorry that's all I can remember at the moment..

"That's ok," Alex said "If you remember anything else. Ring this number." she added handing Melanie her phone number at the station. "Thanks for your time."

"You were quiet in there." she said to Gene as they walked out of the hospital.

"Bolls, I think we established long ago that you're better with the victims and I'm better at kicking twelve types of shit out of criminals."

"That's true." she replied getting into the car. "I've just thought of something."

"What?"

"The description that Viv gave us a few days ago was 'tall, bald and scruffy' and Melanie's was 'beefy, light brown hair and from the West Country."

"So?"

"So it means that both the murder and assault were committed by different people. The only thing connecting them is the notes." she replied as Gene sped off.

"So we're back to the start?"

"No," she replied. "It means if we can get either the murderer or the attacker we might be able to find out who they work for."

"What makes yeh so sure they're working for someone."

"The note we found on Melanie was already there when she got pushed out of the car."

* * *

A few hours later, they had finally made a break through. Within an hour of returning, Melanie had rung to say that she'd remembered part of the registration of the car. With CID looking through a list of owners of a blue E reg Ford, they had soon found the man they were looking for. Neil Jones. When they got round to interviewing him, he had refused a solicitor.

"So you don't deny attacking Melanie Hale?" Alex said

"No I don't," he replied.

"Who do yeh work for?" Gene asked

"I don't work for anyone." he replied. Gene stood up and dragged Neil up by the scruff of his top.

"Allow me to rephrase," he said punching him in the stomach. "Who do yeh work for?"

"I don't know who 'e is. I've never met him. None of us have. It's all done by post. We got a letter in the post on the day we 'ave to do it. It's hand delivered an' all. All the letter says is what we have to do and where to leave the note that's enclosed." At this Gene walked out of the interview room and Alex followed.

"So much for catching the main guy." he said banging his head against the wall.

"There's always tomorrow," Alex said in what she hoped was a reassuring voice.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a darkened office in London a phone rang.

"Hello," a voice said

"They've arrested Jones."

"Good. Everything is falling into place."

* * *

**There you go, I hope you like it. If you did, you know what to do.**


	6. Chapter 6

**This chapter would've been uploaded last week, but there were a few other things that had to take precedence. Anyway here's chapter 6 I hope you like it. Also the joke about Desperate Housewives that appears in this chapter is meant to be affectionate as I am a fan of that show.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or anything associated with Ashes to Ashes. I also don't own the quote from Desperate Housewives that appears later on in the chapter.**

* * *

Chapter Six

It had been one month since the notes had began to arrive at crime scenes and they still hadn't found the person who was leaving them or who had murdered Christine. Not through lack of trying though. The only problem was that things had been a little quiet on that front since the assault on Melanie Hale. The only new development had come from Neil Jones who had told them that the description given to Viv of the man who was seen acting suspiciously in St. Marks park the night that Christine had been murdered wasn't entirely truthful. They had also found out that the man who had given them the description was actually Neil's boss and Christine's murderer. This hadn't pleased Gene at all and it had taken every inch of Alex's brain and body to stop Gene from drinking himself into a coma. Things were changing in CID aswell, Shaz had filled in the DC application forms and she would be moving up to CID today to be exact. Both Gene and Alex had promised Shaz that they wouldn't say anything to anyone in CID until Gene made the announcement this morning.

Alex was snapped out of her reflections of the past month by Gene banging on the bathroom door.

"Bols, are you ok? You've been in there for half an hour. You don't normally take this long."

"I'm fine," she replied still not believing what she was seeing. "It's a big day for CID."

"It's only Shaz getting promoted."

"But she's going to prove what we've known for a long time now."

"Yeh going to be much longer?"

"About five minutes." she replied.

* * *

"Boss," Chris said approaching Alex who was making herself a drink.

"Yes, Chris."

"You know how you and Shaz are close like."

"Yes."

"Is she alright?" he asked "It's just she's being secretive and she left the flat earlier than usual this morning." he added "Before I was even ready."

"Don't worry, Chris, she's fine"

"You know something, don't you boss?"

"Perhaps," she replied with a small smile leaving the small kitchen area.

As she walked back into CID she noticed that Gene was stood waiting to make an announcement. She walked back into the kitchen area and signalled for Chris to join her.

"Right you lot listen up," he said several moments when everyone was assembled in the CID offices. "As you know, for the past few weeks myself and DI Drake, have been looking for a new DC. After much consideration, I'd like to introduce to you to our new DC: WDC Skelton." he added as Shaz shyly stepped out of his office.

"Was that why she was being secretive boss?" Chris asked

"Yes it was."

"Ace." he said.

Alex glanced sideways and saw that Chris was still stood next to her so she gave him a push in the right direction.

"Well go congratulate her then." she said. She watched as Chris congratulated his wife before standing aside so that the rest of CID could congratulate her.

"So this is our team?" Gene asked coming to stand beside Alex.

"It certainly looks like it might be." she replied.

Later that day, Alex walked into Gene's office.

"How do you feel about September?" she asked.

"Why?"

"Because I was thinking it would be the perfect month for a wedding"

"Don't yeh need more than three months to plan a wedding." he replied "It took Chris and Shaz almost a year."

"No something simple in a registry office with a reception in Luigi's afterwards." she replied "It won't take that long."

"Alright then." he said . They heard a small crash and looked up to see that Chris had leant on a desk to read a file and knocked a few items off. "The way he's going, Shaz will get promoted to DS before he does." Gene commented

"Not necessarily. All he needs is a firm but gentle hand and he'll be sorted." she replied. She could tell that Gene had heard innuendo in her statement as the look on his face told her all she needed to know. "Oh grow up." she said leaving the office.

"Are you alright ma'am?" Shaz asked a few moments later. "You've been looking peaky all morning."

"I'm fine Shaz, I've not been sleeping well, the past few nights." she replied. To most people that would have been a sufficient answer and they would have left well alone. But to someone as perceptive as Shaz, the answer wasn't sufficient as she could tell that there was more to the story than met the eye. But before she could press her further, Gene came out of his office.

"Uniform have just passed on a burglary to us."

"Why?" Ray asked "Plonk, should be able to deal with it, without CID needing to 'old their hands."

"I know, but they found a note at the crime scene which they're bringing it in."

* * *

"_The past has a way of drifting back to us and when it does we have to pay the price."_

"Eloquent bastard," Gene said "What do yeh think Bolls?" he asked perching on her desk.

"I think it sounds like something you'd hear on Desperate Housewives." she muttered.

"What's that then some porn film?" Gene asked

"It's… never mind." she replied "But as to what it means I can honestly say that I don't know." she added unable to shake the nagging feeling that there was some hidden clue within the note.

"Shut up" Ray said. Gene, Alex and Shaz looked up to see Ray and Chris walking into CID.

"Sorry mate, but it is funny."

"What is?" Alex asked as the rest of CID looked up at Chris and Ray.

"You know that WPC that Ray's been tryin' it on wit'." he said "It turns out that she likes the women herself."

At this CID erupted into laughter. Alex and Shaz shared a look as they already knew this and had just been waiting for Ray to find out.

"Oh fuck off," Ray said sitting down in a chair and lighting up.

"Do you have the address of the house that got burgled?" Alex asked turning her attention to the white board, where they had placed a giant map of London with red circles marking the places where they'd found Christine's body and the street where Shaz and Alex had found Melanie. From the circles Alex had drawn a line which led to a photocopy of the note that had been left at the relevant crime scene. She had done this to see if there was any correlation between the two locations but so far they hadn't found anything.

"Plonk said that it was 27 Miller Lane." Gene said

"Ok, Shaz, can you photocopy this note for me." Alex said passing it to Shaz before drawing a red circle around Miller Lane. She then took a step back and looked at the map.

"Can you see anything yet Alex?"

"Here you are ma'am" Shaz said handing Alex the photocopy and the original. Alex stuck the photocopy at the end of the line pointing to Miller Lane before steeping back once more.

"What do you think Shaz?" Alex asked

"Me, ma'am?"

"Well you didn't think we'd promote yeh and then not bother to use yeh did you?" Gene replied

"Can you see any patterns Shaz? Anything connecting the locations?" Alex said prompting Shaz who looked a little nervous.

"It might be nothing ma'am but looking at the grid references it looks like they're forming a diagonal line."

Alex and Gene tilted their heads to the side and saw what Shaz was on about. Alex moved closer to the board, picked up a notebook and began scribbling furiously.

"Right," Gene said loud enough for CID to hear. "I think we should adjourn to Luigi's to celebrate WDC Skelton's first day and to stop Bolly kecks here getting a brain ache."

"I think I'll give it a miss if you don't mind Gene." Alex said when CID began drifting out. "I'm not feeling that good."

"Do yeh want me to stay with yeh?"

"No, I'm probably just going to curl up on the sofa and end up falling asleep. Go and celebrate Shaz's first day. Have a drink on me…or several."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, go have fun." she replied before making sure no one was around and kissing him lightly. Even though everyone knew about them, they walked a fine line between being professional and being openly affectionate to the point of being unprofessional.

* * *

_The footsteps were getting closer to the door. She looked up as the door opened. She couldn't tell who it was but she guessed it was her captor judging by the cruel sneer she could just about make out on his face._

"_Now then," he said "How about I tell you a story? How about I tell you the one about the man who…"_

_But she never found out how that sentence ended as there was a loud bang before everything went black…_

Once again Alex Drake awoke with a start, blinking madly and gazing around the room. When she'd fully come to, she shook her head. This dream was really starting to get to her. It had been the same dream every night for what seemed like as lifetime. She looked at the clock on the bedside table and sighed. It was only half 8, Gene wouldn't be up for at least another 3 hours. Every time she'd had this dream he was always the one that made it go away and made her feel a lot better. She supposed she could go down to Luigi's and just sit with Shaz. However, that would be a slight problem as she wouldn't be drinking and Shaz being as perceptive as she was would notice something was up just like she had done earlier in CID. She was about to try and go back to sleep when there was a knock at the door.

She opened the front door to see Shaz stood there.

"Oh, hi Shaz," she said "You given up on Luigi's already?"

"When the Guv began the drinking contest, I decided to come up here and talk to you instead." she replied. Shaz had decided earlier that evening when she hadn't seen Alex in Luigi's that something was affecting her and it wasn't just sleepless nights. Alex stepped aside to let Shaz in.

"Can I get you a drink?" she asked

"No, I'm fine." she replied sitting down on the sofa. "Look, Alex, you can tell me to mind my own business if you want but are you ok?" Shaz asked "I know earlier you said that it was just sleepless nights. But is there anything else?"

"I don't know what to do," Alex replied her voice no more than a whisper.

"You don't know what to do about what?"

"I'm pregnant," was all she said.

"That's wonderful news," Shaz, replied "How do you feel about it?"

"I'm still trying to get my head around it. I've done four tests in two days and had it confirmed by the station's on call doctor earlier today and I'm still in shock."

"Did he tell you how many weeks you are?"

"About seven weeks."

"So what is it that you don't know what to do?"

"I don't know how to tell Gene. I'm worried about what he'll say." Alex replied trying to keep her tears inside."I think he'd be ok with it."

"I don't know Shaz," Alex replied "He had an absolutely shit time with his dad when he was younger. I think he'd be scared that he'd turn out like his father."

"You'll have to tell him soon."

"I know."

* * *

"You're up early Bolly." Gene said when he saw Alex emerging from the bathroom a full half hour before she was normally up.

"I know, I couldn't sleep" she replied wiping the corners of her mouth.

"Yeh alright?"She hesitated a beat before answering. "Yes just checking I didn't have any toothpaste on my face," she replied walking into the bedroom to get dressed. She closed the door behind her, sat down on the bed and sighed. That had been the perfect time to tell him. She had been about to but at the last minute she'd decided against it. She knew she'd have to tell him soon, before he worked it out for himself and then asked her why she hadn't told him sooner.

"What no jeans today?" Gene asked when she came out of the bedroom an hour later wearing the grey dress that he liked to call the "arse-stamping" dress.

"No," she replied curtly. "Have we got time to have a talk?" she asked deciding to bite the bullet.

"Not really, I've got to ring the Super and then we have to go and talk to yesterday's…." he tailed off as he watched her whirl around and run into the bathroom and heard her being sick.

"Seriously, are you alright?" he asked his voice full of concern.

"I…I…"

"You what Alex?"

"I don't think I cooked them eggs properly," she lied

"What eggs?"

"The ones I had last night."

"I didn't see a saucepan or a plate."

"I washed them up," she lied again flushing the toilet. She couldn't remember being this sick when she was pregnant with Molly. She ran a flannel over her face before leaving the bathroom.

"You ok?" he asked searchingly.

"I'm fine." she replied "Come on we're going to be late."

"Now, I know you're not 100% . Yeh never say 'we're going to be late'" Gene replied with a smirk. She rolled her eyes at him before leaving the flat.

As they headed over to the station they were unaware of the shadowy figure watching them from the shadows of an alley.

* * *

Several hours later, Gene and Alex walked out of 27 Miller Lane after speaking to the lady who had been burgled the previous day.

"Bit of a come down."

"What is?" Alex asked

"Well, a murder, then an assault, fuck all for a month, then a robbery." he replied "I'm no psychological profiler but shouldn't it start with minor crimes and then escalate into major crimes."

"It should but not always," she replied "Gene there's some…" however, she was cut off by the radio.

"Hold that thought love." Gene said "What is it skip?"

"Guv, there's been a fire."

"Well, call the fire brigade then it's what they're paid for."

"They're at the scene now, but Guv…"

"What?"

"It's DI Drake's flat that's on fire."

* * *

**So it would seem that someone has given me organisational skills for Christmas as I have the rest of this fic planned out on paper so it shouldn't be long until the next chapter appears which will feature a bit of Galex fluff before I crank up the drama levels. Anyway if you liked this chapter you know what to do.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry it's taken me long to update but I had a few assignments for uni that had to take priority. Anyway thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed so far, the end is in sight in roughly 6/7 chapters time. Here's chapter 7, I hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: ****I don't own anything to do with Ashes to Ashes.**

Chapter 7

"_It's DI Drake's flat that's on fire."_

For a moment, after Viv had called through Alex just stood there trying to comprehend everything. Why would anyone want to torch her flat? Was it carried out by the same person who was leaving the notes? Was she in anyway connected to the other victims? It was only when Gene told her to "get in the bloody car" that she snapped out of what she would later describe as some sort of trance.

In what seemed like no time at all they were pulling up outside Luigi's… well as close as the cordon would allow them. As they drew near to where Shaz, Ray and Chris were stood, Alex saw not just her flat, but her home, the place where she would hide when the 1980's world would get too much for her, going up in flames. From what she could make out, it only appeared to be their flat that the fire was raging through but she couldn't be sure. She wasn't sure if it was morning sickness or something else that made the bile rise up into her throat causing her to empty what little she had ate that day into the nearest bin. She felt tears welling up and she felt like she was in one of those movies where she was the helpless heroine watching everything as though it was running in slow motion. She felt Gene's arm snake around her waist and pull her close. Normally, they maintained a professional manner, but in situations like this Gene didn't care as he comforted Alex who was now curled into his side with silent tears streaming down her face. He pulled her tighter and placed a light kiss on the top of her head while, Chris, Ray and Shaz maintained a respectful distance.

She raised a hand to wipe her eyes and looked down the road. She could see Luigi surrounded by his wife, his staff and two of his sons who were also members of staff. She also noticed his lunchtime customers were stood nearby aswell as some people she recognised as her neighbours who she had probably only spoken two words too in the two years she'd been living there.

"Come on," Gene said leading her away from the fire.

"Where are we going?" she asked following him blindly as she was too afraid to let go of his hand.

"We - that is to say you - are going to sit in the car, yeh look you're about to pass out.

* * *

An hour later, the fire had been put out. Alex had watched it all happen from the passenger seat of the Quattro. She had seen it all unfold from the firemen battling to put it out to the window being blown out by the sheer force of the fire. She watched as the fire inspector spoke first to her neighbours, then to Luigi who pointed over to where she was sat with Gene stood by the door, she watched him make his way over to them.

"Ms. Drake, I presume?" he said to her

"Yes," Alex replied getting out of the car and standing next to Gene.

"My name is Robert Thompson, I'm the fire inspector."

"What's the damage?" Gene asked cutting through the introductions.

"I'm told you're both members of the police force, so I'll spare the pleasantries and get straight to the point." he replied "The arson attack was clearly carried out by someone who knew exactly what they were doing as the fire has only damaged you're flat." he added "This theory is further proved by the fact that this was taped to the door and was barely singed by the fire." he said passing Gene a note. He read it, his face slowly darkening before passing it to Alex who also read it:

_'Was it luck or coincidence that you were at work Detective Inspector? This could have been the death of you"_

If Gene hadn't put his arm around her waist to support her, she would've easily fell to the ground. The notes left at a crime scene were one thing, the note and photographs sent to Gene was another, but this, this was something else entirely.

"He shouldn't have done that," Gene muttered into her ear "Because, whoever this twisted bastard is, he will regret the day he threatened yeh."

"I can take you to look around the flat if you like," Robert said "Of course you'll have to wear a safety helmet and follow me at all times," he added.

As the front door got pressed open, Alex felt the tears well up as she surveyed the fire damage. Everything she could see had been burned, charred or showed signs of fire damage. Nothing had escaped the hand of fire. She felt, the hot, angry tears begin to fall down her cheeks as she was overwhelmed by memories: speaking into a tape recorder, detailing her experiences in this world, her mother visiting her after George Bonds had blown up his families pub.

As she looked around the kitchen, she remembered all the times that Molly had appeared to her. As they were shown the living room, she remembered hiding behind the sofa when Trevor Riley's thugs smashed up her living room. Moving back towards the bedroom, Alex recalled all the hours that she and Gene had spent in the bed since they'd become a couple including their first night together. She felt the hot, angry tears falling faster down her cheeks, before quickly wiping them away.

"I think we've seen enough," Gene said noticing how upset Alex was getting.

"Alright, we'll phone you if we need to speak to you." Robert said as they handed back the safety helmets and left the flat.

As they left, the building they saw Luigi talking to his eldest son. Alex headed over to him.

"Luigi, I'm so sorry that this has happened. I …"

"Sinora Drake, do not apologise. Itsa not your fault. I have insurance. I changed the policy when those two started to play games with drink and fire." he replied pointing to Chris and Ray. Alex gave him a small smile before heading back to where Gene was stood. She took his hand and let him lead her inside the station.

"Here you go ma'am," Shaz said handing Alex a glass of water. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine Shaz."

"Have you told him yet?"

"I was about to when we found out about the fire." she replied "But I am going to tell him."

"I don't get it." Chris said when he and Ray had finished looking at the note.

"Surprise, surprise." Gene muttered coming to stand behind Alex

"No I mean why would anyone want to leave a note like this for you boss?" he asked

"If I knew that Chris we could've solved this case a month ago." Alex said taking a sip of water.

"Where yeh going to stay?" Ray asked "The two of yeh can't stay at yours ma'am."

"No that's true," she replied

"We've got a spare room you could have." Shaz suggested. Chris didn't say anything. As much as he liked Gene and Alex he wasn't sure about having his superior officers living with him for a few months.

"Thanks Shaz. That's a nice offer."

"Actually Bolls, I know where we can stay," Gene said "I never got round to selling my flat when I sort of moved in with yeh. We can stay there."

"Ok," she replied.

* * *

Several hours later, Alex was gazing mindlessly out of the passenger window of the Quattro as Gene pulled up outside a row of nondescript terraced houses in Whitechapel.

"This is home." Gene said as he stopped the car.

"Hmm,"

"Planet Earth, calling DI Bolly Knickers." Gene said "You've been away with the fairies all day.

"I'm sorry, I'm just tired."

"Come on then, lets get you to bed." he replied getting out of the car, walking around to the passenger door to let her out.

Following Gene around the house, Alex paid little attention to what it looked like or where she was going. The only thing on her mind was falling into what she hoped would be a dreamless sleep.

As she settled down beneath the sheets wearing one of Gene's old shirts which he'd let her borrow, she felt the bed dip slightly beside her.

"Don't leave me," she muttered as he pulled her close. "It only goes away when you're here." she added flinging her arm across his torso.

"Course I'm not going anywhere yeh daft cow." he replied "I love you. God only knows why but I do." he added hoping to get a reply. When he didn't get one he looked down to see that she was out like light.

Her light breath danced tantalisingly across his bare chest as he was left alone with nothing but the dark and his thoughts. Thoughts that were all consumed by the woman he currently held close to him. If someone had told him when he'd first moved to London that he would end up falling in love with a posh, mouthy tart with a head full of brains and the common sense of a grain weevil, he'd have had them committed faster than they could recite the national anthem. All the same here he was, three years later engaged to just that. And although he'd never admit it…in front of his team at least he was actually quite happy about all that had happened in the past few months and all the domesticity that went with it. In fact he'd go as far as saying that for the first time in his life he was truly happy. He looked at her hand and even though it was dark he could still make out her ring. The night she'd accepted his proposal had been the first night he'd dreamt about their future. One of the dream scenes he remembered most clearly involved him walking into a room and seeing Alex bathed in the early evening summer sun cradling a small baby. He'd been most surprised by that as he'd previously never imagined himself with children - of any kind. And now that he thought about it, it was probably because he'd never truly loved a woman - the way he loved Alex at any rate - before. Looking back he realised he hadn't loved his ex-wife. He felt his eyelids droop and soon he too drifted off into sleep.

* * *

The next morning, Alex awoke in an unfamiliar bed. As she looked around the room she recalled the events of the previous day: the fire, coming to stay at Gene's house. It was then she realised that she didn't actually know whereabouts Gene actually lived, she hadn't paid that much attention to where they were going when they left Fenchurch yesterday evening. However, she knew she had to find the bathroom otherwise she'd end up being sick out of the bedroom window.

"Morning," she said walking into the kitchen after finding her way around the house.

"Are you ok?" Gene asked after he'd heard her being sick yet again.

"If I say yes, will you believe me?" she replied sitting down on the chair next to him.

"No."

"If you've been living with me for the past few months, how come you've got food that's in date?"

"I went to the shop while you were still sleeping." he replied "Now, if I recall you were about to tell me something yesterday before the fire, so what was it?"

"Well you know how I've been a bit out of sorts recently."

"Yes," he replied "You're not ill are yeh?" he asked suddenly worried that he was going to lose her.

"Not as such no." she replied

"Then what is it?"

"I'm pregnant." she replied, not sugar-coating it, just biting the bullet and telling him outright. She turned her attention to the table and waited his reaction. "Well, say something." she added after several moments of silence.

"Are you sure?" he asked

"Yes. The doctor's confirmed it and if he's got it wrong then the station needs a new on call doctor."

"So we're going to have a baby?"

"Well technically I'm the one who's going to be having it. But I know what you mean." she replied. "How do you feel about it?"

"Happy, but bloody terrified." he said before kissing her lightly. "Am I the first to know?"

Alex opened her mouth to say that no he wasn't the first to know but the look in his eyes made her reconsider. "Yes, you are." she said hoping that she would see Shaz before Gene did.

Several hours later, Alex was pottering around the house. Gene had pulled a few strings and gotten them both the day off. While he'd gone to the supermarket to get more than just breakfast stuff. Alex had taken to looking around the house properly. When you walked in through the door, you were greeted by a long hall with a staircase at the end of it. At various points there were four doors: one led to the living room, another led to the kitchen/dining room and the other two led to a downstairs bathroom and a coat/utility room. She walked up the stairs, running her hand along the fading and peeling wallpaper. When she reached the landing, she saw that there were four other doors: two led to bedrooms, one led to the upstairs bathroom and the other led to the airing cupboard. If she was honest with herself, she didn't expect Gene to live in a house like this. However, if she was being honest with herself, she hadn't actually imagined where Gene would live. She'd only ever seen him at work, Luigi's or her flat but she'd never pictured him in a house. She was startled out of her reverie by someone ringing the doorbell. She walked down the stairs and opened the front door and was greeted by Shaz.

"Hi Shaz, what are you doing here?"

"Well as your flat was completely destroyed I thought you might need some interim clothes until you could get into town." she replied holding up a box of clothes.

"Did you get them from the evidence room again?" Alex asked remembering the first lot of clothes Shaz had got her when she first arrived in 1981.

"No lost and found." she replied with a smile. "Anyway I should be getting back to the station. We've been doing door to doors around the area and speaking to the other officers to see of they saw anything."

"Was that your idea Shaz?" Alex asked knowing that it was the sort of thing Shaz would probably do.

"No, it was Ray's." Shaz replied "I don't think he'd admit it but he's learnt from you. We all have. Like I said I'd best be getting back."

"I told Gene earlier."

"How did he take it?"

"Surprisingly well," Alex replied "I thought he'd run a mile."

"See I told you he'd be ok with it."

Alex opened her mouth to say something when she saw Gene pull up. "Look, Shaz…" she began.

"Morning Shaz," Gene said "Has Alex told yeh our news?"Shaz looked at Alex who imperceptibly shook her head. "No, she hasn't."

Shaz replied cottoning onto what Alex was trying to communicate. "What is it?"

"Gene, you promised me you wouldn't say anything." Alex said.

"Sorry love, but Shaz can keep a secret can't yeh?"

"Course I can."

"See." Gene replied. "Alex is pregnant."

"Oh that's wonderful news." Shaz replied "Congratulations." she added "Anyway, I've got to get back to the station. I'll see you tomorrow bye."

As Shaz walked back to the bus stop, it occurred to her that she'd never seen the Guv as happy as was at this moment in time.

**Hope you liked it, if you did you know what to do.**


	8. Chapter 8

Once again thanks to everyone who's read and reviewed so far, it feels good to know that people like what I've written so far. I'd like to dedicate this chapter to my friend Carolyn for putting up with all my mad ramblings about characterisation and plot twists. Anyway on with the chapter

Disclaimer: I don't own Ashes to Ashes if I did it would be on TV by now.

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Chapter Eight.

Several days later, Luigi's had reopened - much to the delight of Fenchurch East CID, and work had begun on rebuilding Gene and Alex's flat. Gene had made good on his promise not to tell anyone else that Alex was pregnant, so apart from Shaz no-one else knew. However, they sensed that something was afoot because Gene hadn't yelled at anyone in the past few days. There had been a few ideas bandied around CID, but none of them were even remotely close to the truth.

It had been a quiet day for CID so far, but Alex wasn't holding out much hope for it lasting much longer. The reason for this was that whenever it appeared to be a quiet day something would come along and stop it from being a quiet day. She looked at her watch and wondered how much longer it would be before something came along as she was bored. She looked over to Gene's office where he was concentrating intently on a darts match against himself. As she watched him play darts, she thought about how different he'd been the past few days since she had told him she was pregnant. He hadn't lost his temper with anyone and in the mornings when she was being sick he'd taken to holding her hair back, rubbing her back before getting her a glass of water for her to sip at. She wondered what Sam would make of this side of Gene Hunt. She let out a small laugh before turning her attention to something else.

"Something funny? Gene asked his breath dancing on the back of her neck. When he'd seen her laugh he'd felt like she'd been laughing at him. Alex was about to reply when Ray walked in

"Guv, looks like we were wrong to dismiss the snouts for not knowing anything last month."

"Why?"

"Winnie's got wind of a big drugs deal, today at 3pm at the abandoned warehouse on Wharf Road."

"Nice work, Raymondo, round up the troops."

"Winnie?" Alex asked

"Yeah, 'bout two months after we transferred down 'ere, plonk pulled him over for speeding and found he was smuggling drugs into the country in honey pots. So Chris named after Winnie the Pooh." he replied "Anyway, you're staying here."

"Why?"

"It might not be safe for yeh, what with yeh being…" he tailed off seeing the look in her eyes.

"I'm pregnant, not a bloody invalid." she hissed "Are you going to make Shaz stay here incase it's not safe?" she asked "No, of course you're not." she added cutting him off before he could reply. "Anyway, if it wasn't for me you would've had your throat slashed by a druggie at the drugs bust on Lafferty's building site."

"Fine," Gene replied knowing that she was right, she had saved his life that night. "But you're staying in the car." he added "An' to make sure that you stay there, I'll be keeping an eye on yeh."

"I can just here the team's comments now." Alex muttered.

* * *

Ninety minutes later, all of CID were at the abandoned warehouse. Ray, Chris and Shaz were in a car covering the back entrance, Gene and Alex were in the Quattro covering the front entrance while the rest of CID along with a couple of uniformed officers were covering the side entrances. They had also checked that the only ways of entering the building were via one of the four entrances. When Gene had said that he would be watching the front entrance with Alex, there had been a few comments from the team. All of which had been met with promises to hack off genitalia with an extremely rusty hacksaw. Alex looked at her watch and sighed. She hoped that they wouldn't be here long as she was feeling tired and all she wanted to do was curl up and sleep.

"What yeh doing?" he asked as she watched her get out of the car.

"Adjusting the seat," she replied fumbling with the mechanism to adjust the seat. He watched as she tipped the seat back so it resembled a tilted chair before lying down on it.

"If you'd just said that you wanted a bit of fun while we waited I wouldn't have objected." he said as she made herself comfy.

"I've done this because I'm tired, not so you can have a quickie." she replied "Anyway I've been thinking."

"Makes a change," Gene commented "'Bout what?"

"What to call junior here." she replied

"Gene," he said very matter-of-factly. Alex rolled her eyes, she hadn't expected anything different.

"And if it's a girl?"

"Jean, yeh just spell it the other way." Gene replied looking over at Alex, who he assumed was listening even though her eyes were shut."Great," he heard her mutter, " two Gene Hunts…" however, the rest of her muttering was to low for him to make out.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

For the next twenty minutes, Gene alternated between watching her sleep and keeping his eyes open for any sign of Winnie or the dealers. He caught sight of Alex's watch. He checked she was still sleeping before taking his radio and getting out of the car.

"Shouldn't the deal, have happened by now?" Shaz asked from the back seat of the car.

"Shaz is right," Chris replied looking at his watch which read 3:20.

"They've probably gone in the front entrance an' with the Guv and Drake paying no attention, we've missed it all." Ray said.

"I doubt that, they're both professional not a pair of randy teenagers." Shaz said, while Chris tried to stop that mental image entering his head. Ray was about to reply when his radio crackled to life and Gene's voice filtered through.

Alex stretched as much as he could as she came to in the front of the Quattro. As she opened her eyes she couldn't see Gene anywhere, she sat up as best she could and saw him leaning on the bonnet talking into his radio. As she opened the door she could hear the conversation.

"…right information?"

"Yes, Guv. I wasn't holdin' my lighter to his knackers no way was 'e makin' it up." Ray said

"Right you three and the rest of yeh go into the warehouse and see what - if anything has gone on." he said putting the call out to all officers on the scene. "Yeh awake now then?" he asked turning to see her stood by the door.

"What have I missed?" she asked coming to stand next to him.

"Not much, the deal hasn't happened, the others have gone to take a look around.""Well come on then," she said heading towards the building.

"Alex," he said grabbing her arm.

"Oh come on, we're just going to look around. I'll stay by your side at all times." she replied turning to face him. "I'll make it worth your while." she said in her most flirtatious voice. Gene stood up and they both headed inside.

After, an excursion of around an hour inside the warehouse they still hadn't found anything. They had eventually come to decision that Ray had been fed duff information. As Gene and Alex headed back towards the Quattro, they noticed that there was something waiting for them. As they drew nearer they could see what exactly it was. Under the windscreen wipers they spotted two notes. One was addressed to Gene, the other was addressed to Alex. Alex read her note, paled dramatically and swayed alarmingly while reading the words:

_"You're next"_

Gene placed an arm around her waist and spun her around so that she was sat on the bonnet instead of leaning on it like she had been earlier. When he had made sure that Alex was okay, he passed her the note that was addressed to him. As she read it, she felt a sense of unease creep over her:

_"You've destroyed evidence and the time is coming for the truth to come out."_

She looked up at Gene, fear clouding her eyes.

"What have you done?" she asked a mix of fear and curiosity creeping into her voice as she heard herself say the words she hoped it sounded strong and brave bit scared like she was. Things were starting to go right for once in her life and she didn't want it to come crashing down around her ears.

* * *

Gene and Ray were driving around the streets of London looking for Winnie. If he had fed Ray duff information they wanted to know who put him up to it. And if he'd been doing it for a laugh well, they knew exactly what they would do. Gene had just sped around a corner and stepped on the brakes. Ray threw his hands onto the dashboard to stop himself smacking his face on it just like it had when he'd been in the car at a Gay Pride Demo with a woman who was now the Guv's missus.

"Steady on Guv." "Careful, Raymondo, you're beginning to sound like Chris." Gene said getting out of the car and walking down an alley towards a short man with scraggy hair. "Oi! Winnie." he shouted. The man saw Gene and Ray walking towards him, he turned to run but was met by a brick wall.

"Oh fuck," he said as Ray's fist collided with his face.

"You lied to us." Gene said as Ray held Winnie up by the scruff of his neck.

"No I didn't," he replied "I was told 3 o'clock…warehouse…Wharf Road."

"Liar!" Gene shouted as Ray kicked Winnie in the groin. "Now who told yeh to give us duff information?"

"I don't know, 'e came out of the shadows when I was walking down the street and paid me a tenner to feed a lie to the police."

"What did he look like?"

"I…I can't remember. But he was definitely local, with medium length hair. That's all I know. I swear."

"Yeh've let us down." Gene said kicking him before walking away and letting Ray finish up.

When Ray had finished it was obvious that Winnie had really been roughed up. He had a black eye, a split lip and several nasty bruises along his arms. As they sped away, they were unaware of the man of medium height and a distinguishing feature turn an walk down the alley where Winnie was laying.

"Please," he whimpered "I won't lie to you again Mr Hunt" he added, he looked up expecting to see Gene but his gaze was met by someone else instead. "Oh it's you."

"You're a disgrace." the man said "I tell you to do one thing and you can't even do that right. An' now you give them a vague description, that with their female DI on the team, they'll figure it out right away ruining my little plan."

"Look, I'm sorry, next time…" he whimpered.

"There's not going to be a next time. I have no use for you anymore." he said pulling out a gun and pulling the trigger.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Bols, a word." Gene said striding into CID and heading straight for his office without so much as a glance in her direction. At a questioning look from Shaz, Alex merely shrugged her shoulders and headed into the lion's den. She walked in and noted that once again the blinds were drawn.

"What?"

"Now before I ask…no tell yeh what I'm about to, I want yeh to know that I'm not doing it to piss yeh off."

"Ok," Alex said sitting down in his lap wondering where he was going with this.

"You've been threatened twice by this psycho an' now it's not just yourself you have to worry about." he said placing his arms around her torso where he could feel the subtle changes that were invisible to the naked eye but to someone like him who knew every inch of her body intimately, he noticed them easily. "I jus' want you to promise to keep yehself safe as I don't want to lose either of you." he added.

She turned her head so she could place a deep, passionate kiss on his lips. When they broke apart she pulled back so she could look squarely into his eyes.

"I promise you. I will keep the both of us safe." she said.

"Good," he said stealing another kiss. "Now bugger off and help find a twisted psycho." he added as she stood up and headed towards the door. "Can yeh get Ray and tell 'im I want to speak to him."

"Sure," she replied before giving him a dazzling smile, one of those rare ones that she would only give him and it would take his breath away.

Several moments later, Ray walked in and shut the door.

"You wanted to see me Guv?"

"Sit down, I've got a job for you." he replied "A little bit of protection work for someone you know."

"Who?"

"Alex," Gene replied. Ray was momentarily confused he didn't know anyone called Alex and then he realised who Gene was talking about.

"Why me?"

"Because, you're the only one I'd trust with something like this." Gene replied and he noticed that Ray looked a tiny bit pleased with himself. "This is not just tailing her. Any bugger can do that. This is serious."

"Alright Guv," Ray replied "But why does she need protecting in the first place?"

"Whoever this twisted psycho is, he's threatened her … twice. Unless I'm with her, or she's talking to a fellow officer, I want you to keep an eye on her. If she goes off on one of her mad chases I want you to go with her. If any unsavoury characters lay so much as one finger on her I want you to sort them out." Gene replied "You got that?"

"Yes Guv," Ray replied. Although he'd tried to hide it, Ray could tell that the Guv, really did love her. It was then Ray decided that he would discreetly get other CID members to help him as he knew that if anything were to happen to Alex, none of them would want to see that look of loss permanently in his eyes. And they sure as hell, didn't want him to channel his grief into anger and take it out on them.

* * *

Half hour later, Alex, Ray, Chris and Shaz were looking through statements from door to doors at the various crime scenes. Ray sighed as he looked through another statement from an old bat who hadn't seen anything.

"Surely, this is plonk's stuff." he muttered to Chris. Chris merely shrugged his shoulders before turning back to his pile of statements.

They all looked up as they heard a bin being kicked across a small room. In unison, they turned their heads towards Gene's office where the saw him stood, framed in the doorway. With the sun streaming in from behind him, Alex had never seen him look so powerful as he did then and it took all her willpower to not jump on him.

"Come on," he said striding towards the doors.

"What's going on?" Chris asked

"Winnie's body's just washed up on the banks of the Thames."

Pulling up on the banks of the Thames, Alex felt an odd sense of déjà vu creep over her. She shook it off before following the other four down the steps to reach the crime scene. As they walked towards the two officers who were stood by the body, she couldn't shake off the feeling that someone was watching them. Looking around, Alex couldn't see anyone, all she could think about was the fact that she'd been here before, either in a previous life or dream.

"What d'you reckon killed him?" Chris asked. Ray, Gene and Shaz all looked at him as it was obvious to anyone that it was the bullet wound to the head that had killed him.

As Alex looked at the body it all came flooding back to her:

"_Get down them steps, you stupid girl."She watched helplessly as her daughter was taken hostage by a madman. It was only when she heard the shot fired that she was able to move. She ran down the steps, armed response at her heels. She looked around the river bank and saw her daughter stumbling out from behind the steps._

That's why this particular place had seemed so familiar to her because this was…or would be the spot where a busker and then her daughter had been taken hostage in 2008. She swayed slightly and Gene was by her side in an instant.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, it's just I've been here before. Another time, another world." she replied.

"Come on, lets get you home. S'been a long day." Gene replied throwing a last look at the body before leading Alex back to the Quattro.

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So there you have it chapter 8, but what do those two notes mean? You'll have to stay tuned. If you liked it you know what to do.


	9. Chapter 9

**Ok, here's chapter nine, now that I have a bit of free time I should be updating at least once a week. Anyway, I hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Ashes to Ashes or it's characters**

* * *

Chapter Nine

Alex tossed and turned as the dream filled her subconscious. It was different to the one she usually had. This time everything was either blurred or grainy. She couldn't make head nor tail of the images even the sound was distorted as though her ears were filled with water or wax. Even though she couldn't really see or hear anything it still made her feel a deep sense of loss:

_"I told you to stay in the car," _she vaguely recognised her own voice, but who was she talking to.

"_You could've been killed right in front of me." _she could just about make out the image of a young girl with her hair pulled back and wearing a school uniform. 'I know her, but why?'

"_We'll blow the candles out together okay?" _the image of the same girl blowing out candles and wearing a party dress briefly flitted across her mind.

"_I used to have an empire back in the day," _that voice, she recognised it even though it was filtering through distorted hearing. Something about the voice rang a bell but she wasn't sure why.

As a gunshot rang our, she sat bolt upright and the first thing she realised was that she was crying. The second thing she realised was that Gene was also awake. He pulled her tight and held her tight as she cried out her tears into his chest. She cried for the little girl left without a mother, cried for the parents she lost, cried at the thought of their child being born into a world where the men like those that were in her nightmares stalked the streets of London.

Gene held her until she cried herself out around 3 am and throughout the whole time she'd been crying he hadn't said a word just held her close and placed the occasional kiss into her hair. He'd been awoken by her tossing and turning and he'd tried to wake her, as it was clear that whatever she was dreaming about was clearly distressing her, but she was to far into dream land for him to reach her. In the end, he'd sat and waited for her to wake up and the minute she did he was pulling her tight to let him know that he was there for her. He sighed to himself and was thankful that none of his team could see him as his reputation would be shot to pieces. He'd worked to build up his reputation for being a hard bastard and he wanted to keep it. He looked down at Alex and saw that her tears had run dry but her eyes were still red-rimmed and puffy. He also noticed that she was just staring blankly ahead. He'd seen that look before it basically meant 'don't talk to me, just hold me.'

* * *

"This makes a change doesn't it boss?" Shaz said as they headed towards the crime scene.

"How do you mean?"

"Well it's never been me, you and Ray investigating something has it?"

"No you're right," Alex replied looking back at their 'bodyguard' several feet behind them "Although, I don't think Ray is actually here to do any investigating." she added knowing exactly why Gene had sent them out with Ray.

"Do you think it's a protection thing?" Shaz asked "He can be extremely protective at times especially now that you're pregnant."

"True," she replied as they approached the officers. "Have you found anything new?" she asked

"No ma'am," PC Ryder replied "Can we go now? We've been here since 7am and we haven't seen anything."

"You can go when DCI Hunt says you can go. Criminals often return to the scene of the crime. Now this is serious. If you so much as move one foot from this crime scene without a senior officers say so, I will have DCI Hunt make sure you never get out of uniform. Is that clear?" she replied unaware that behind her Ray and Shaz were suppressing smirks at Alex employing a tactic normally used by Gene.

"Yes ma'am."

"'Ere what this over here?" Ray asked noticing something on a wall half hidden in the shadows.

Alex and Shaz, followed Ray as they approached the wall, they noticed a clock had been painted on the wall in red paint. The clock was in the style of an old fashioned pocket watch, much like the one that the White Rabbit had before leading Alice down the rabbit hole. Scrawled underneath it was the phrase:

"_Still watching. Still waiting. Always lurking. In the shadows."_

"I thought you said you hadn't seen anything." Alex said whirling around to face the uniformed officers.

"We hadn't honest?

""Didn't you think to look around before you set up watch?"

"We did," PC Ryder stuttered "We swear it wasn't there."

"Oh great, so our prime suspect was in reaching distance and you didn't see or hear him." she said "Get a crime scene photographer down here now."

"A what?"

"Someone to record this," she replied waving a hand in the direction of the clock. She was beginning to get a bit exasperated with the two PC's. She sighed inwardly before walking away.

"What did he mean by still watching?" Shaz asked.

"About a month ago, someone sent Gene a package. In it were photographs of Christine Swann being murdered aswell several candid photographs of myself and Gene. There was also a note that said: _'Watching. Waiting. Always lurking. In the shadows.' _That" Alex replied pointing behind her "is a similar message. Yesterday, a note was left on the Quattro for Gene, in it was the phrase 'the time is coming.' This…wanker" Alex said struggling to find the right word to describe their unseen suspect. "Is running rings around us and we are getting precisely nowhere." she finished drawing a line in mid-air with her finger as she said the word nowhere.

In that moment, Shaz and Ray noticed two things about Alex: one, she was scared no matter how hard she tried to hide it, and two, she'd clearly being picking up a thing or two from Gene.

"Do you think we should go and speak to the local business owners boss?" Shaz asked "To see if they saw anything."

"I think we should, I'll just radio Gene to let him know about this latest development."

Half hour later, Alex and Shaz were talking to a newspaper vendor just up from the crime scene while Ray was back in his bodyguard role.

"Have you seen anyone looking suspicious in this area in the past few hours?" Alex asked as Shaz made a note of what was being said.

"No," he replied "I've only been here about an hour an' I've not seen anyone apart from a couple of customers and you two."

"Did you notice anything suspicious about any of them?" Shaz asked "Anything unusual about them?"

"No, it was just me regulars and an elderly couple and the owner of that establishment over there." he replied pointing to a rundown café. "Although, now I think about it, he mentioned something about someone running into him."

"Alright, thank you for your time." Alex said before they began walking towards King's café.

As they approached, the café, Alex felt her sense of déjà vu creep up on her again:

_"Start talking sergeant"_

_"IC1 male, Arthur Layton. He may be under the influence of drugs, he's taken a busker hostage. Frankly, he might do anything."_

_"Okay I'm taking my daughter to school, she's in the damn car with me! You can't seriously expect me..."_

"_He asked for you by name, says he'll shoot her if you won't talk to him."_

_"What?"_

"You alright boss? You've gone awfully pale." Shaz asked snapping her out of her thoughts of her past life.

"Yes, I'm fine. Morning sickness will do that to you." Alex lied "You've got it all to come when you and Chris finally have children of your own." she added opening the door. "You coming?" she called to Ray who was stood ogling a female jogger.

"Um…right," he replied running over to the café.

"Yes love, what can I do for you?" a small man behind the counter asked when he saw Alex approaching the counter. He reminded them of an English version of Luigi.

"My name is DI Alex Drake and we were just speaking to Mr Walken." Alex replied pointing out of the window to the newspaper vendor. "And he mentioned that you'd said something about someone running into you earlier."

"Aye," he replied "Why d'you want to know?"

"Well myself and my colleagues are looking for him in connection with a spate of serious crimes as we believe him to be a suspect." Alex replied. "Do you remember what he looked like?"

"Not fully, I only saw him from behind, he didn't even turn to say sorry. All I saw was that he was her height maybe a bit taller," he replied pointing to Shaz "Looked like he could do with his hair being cut though grubby git."

"How?" Shaz asked

"Well it was down to his shoulders weren't it."

As they left the rundown café, Alex looked around and marvelled at how quickly the area developed in the space of twenty or so years: King's café would became a pub/restaurant that she couldn't remember the name of, the Millennium bridge would connect both sides of the Thames so people could cross it by foot and even at half 10 in the morning, it would be full of people as it stood there were only a few people about. She also marvelled at how in twenty-five years time she would be in the same spot - near enough - trying to negotiate with a madman.

"Well, that was helpful" Ray said "A vague description, we can't really solve a crime on that."

"Not necessarily," Alex replied as something clicked in her brain. "Come on," she added running back towards the unmarked car they'd been using with Ray and Shaz at her heels.

Half hour later, they arrived back at the station. As they walked through reception, they saw that Gene was waiting for them. Alex rolled her eyes - even if she'd stepped out of CID to go to the ladies, he'd still be stood waiting to make sure that she came back in one piece. She felt like climbing up onto Viv's desk and yelling: "Enough, with the protection already, if anything serious happened to me you'd be the first to know."

"Well, what did you find out?" Gene asked

"Give me five minutes, to check something and then I'll tell you." she added heading towards CID.

When she reached CID, she threw her jacket haphazardly across the back of her chair before pulling out the file on her desk that covered her and Gene's interview with Neil Jones. She looked through the transcript of the interview, Shaz's notes from their interview with Mr King earlier and Winnie's description of the man who told him to give Ray duff information until she found what she was looking for. She cross-referenced them before heading into Gene's office.

"Well?" he asked looking up from his newspaper. He could tell by the smile on her face that it was good news by the smile on her face.

"I think that I've got us our first solid lead on the person who has been leaving the notes at the crime scenes." she replied placing the three things on Gene's desk. "As you can see, the description that Neil Jones gave us of his boss - who as you remember murdered Christine and then gave us a false description - matches the description given to you by Winnie and the one given to us by Mr King of a man who ran into him earlier, possibly after leaving us that delightful message in red at the crime scene." she added "If we can find this man then the likelihood is that we'll catch the twisted bastard who's been giving us the run around since last month." she finished.

Gene got up, walked around his desk to where she was stood and forgetting about propriety, professionalism and where they were, pulled her close and gave her the kiss of a lifetime. When they broke apart, Alex was left a little light headed and her ears were ringing with the wolf whistles from CID.

"Bolls, I bloody love you." he said before leaving his office to brief the team and to get uniform out looking for their main suspect.

* * *

Several hours later, Alex and Gene were sat in Luigi's and for once it was a proper lunch. Now that Alex was eating for two, Gene was making sure that she was eating three square meals a day. Of course it helped that Luigi had realised that Alex was pregnant so he was also made sure she was eating properly whenever she was in his establishment.

"What?" Alex asked swallowing a mouthful of spaghetti as she'd noticed that Gene was staring at her.

"Yeh know how the other day, you mentioned about having the wedding in September?"

"Yes," she replied

"Do yeh…" Gene began but was interrupted by Luigi.

"Signor Hunt, there's a phone call for you."

Alex watched as Gene walked over to the phone closely followed by Luigi who returned to his usual spot behind the bar.

"Right, I hope you've had enough." Gene said sitting down next to her.

"Why?"

"A bomb's been found."

"Where?"

"That girls school on Ash Street," he replied "Come on, the team are already halfway there."

"Aren't you going to make me stay here?"

"No, I want yeh where I can see yeh." he replied "But you're going nowhere near the building."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As they pulled up at the school, they could see that the girls had already been evacuated from the building.

"Well?" Gene asked as they approached Chris and Shaz.

"The receptionist, spotted it outside the gym and raised the alarm.

"Bomb squad?"

"They're dealing with an incident over at Elephant and Castle, the quickest they can get here is in an hour."

"Oh great," muttered Alex.

"Guv," Ray said walking over to them.

"What?"

"They've done a head count and they're missing one of the girls, Ellie Myles."

"Right I'll go in and find her." Gene said.

"You can't," Alex said a feeling of unease creeping into her stomach. She swore that this baby was making her slightly psychic. "What if the bomb goes off while you're still inside?"

"It's a chance, I'll take," he replied heading towards the school.

"Gene, please I am begging you, for once can you not play the hero and let someone else go instead." she pleaded taking his hand.

"Alex, I do not plan on dying just yet." he replied removing her hand from his before turning and heading inside the school. Alex watched helplessly as he walked away, memories clouding her mind: the day her parents died, the day that Evan took Molly to school and they got caught in the 7/7 bombings. She turned and made her way back to the others.

"Boss?" Shaz asked when she reached them.

"Yes,"

"The receptionist found this by the bomb she didn't know what it meant though." she replied handing Alex a piece of paper.

As she read the note that proclaimed "Times Up." the bomb that it was found by exploded with Gene still inside the building.

* * *

**Don't hate me for the cliffhanger. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter up soon, so won't have to wait long for a resolution.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Here you guys go chapter 10. I know I left chapter 9 on a cliffhanger but it will be resolved in this chapter. This chapter also briefly makes a reference to this story's prequel "The Long Way Home". Also see if you can spot a sneaky series 3 reference hidden early on in the chapter. I can't believe that the end of Ashes is nearly upon us. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Ashes to Ashes or it's characters.**

* * *

Chapter Ten

As she read the note that proclaimed "Time's Up." the bomb that it was found by exploded with Gene still inside the building.

"No!" cried Alex as fragments of the school were blown sky high.

After that everything moved as though it were in slow motion for Alex. McDonald, Butler and the rest of CID began moving the girls even further back than they were already so that the emergency services could get through when they arrived. The teachers began to check the girls to make sure that they weren't injured and comforting those that were crying or upset. Alex stood and watched as the smoke curled high into the sky, tears pouring down her cheeks. She felt a hand touch her arm and she turned to see Shaz stood next to her.

"I told him not to go in there. I pleaded with him but he didn't listen."

"I know," Shaz replied "But you know what he's like when he gets an idea into his head." she added.

Alex removed Shaz's hand and began to walk towards the building. If Gene wasn't a part of this world then she didn't want to be either. She knew that it would be unsafe for both her and the baby, but she wanted…no needed him. He was literally her other half. The ying to her yang, the fish to her chips, the Bodie to her Doyle. She could hear the sirens in the distance but she didn't care she just carried on moving as though on autopilot.

"Boss…Alex, you can't it's not safe." Shaz cried trying to get Alex to turn around. "Chris, Ray do something. It's not safe." she pleaded in the hope that they would be able to stop Alex.

Chris just stood there dumbfounded not sure what to do, whereas Ray did the only thing he could think of. He lunged forward and grabbed her by the arm physically pulling her back.

"Come on, boss, he'd never forgive us if we let anything happen to yeh." he said. However, he wasn't prepared for her reaction. She turned around and broke down on his shoulder with the occasional huge sob escaping from her. Now it was Ray's turn to look dumbfounded as his senior officer cried out her tears on his shoulder. He knew he'd told Gene he'd look after her should anything happen to him, but he wasn't sure that this was what Gene had, had in mind.

Alex was vaguely aware of people talking behind her as she continued to cry, but she didn't care about what they were saying. There was only one voice she wanted to hear and the thought that she might never hear it again brought on another bout of tears. Ray finally seemed to regain use of his limbs and placed an arm around her waist to support her.

"Come on boss, he'd want yeh to be strong for him." Ray said trying to comfort her.

"Rays, right boss." Chris replied agreeing with his friend. But neither statement seemed to work as she still carried on crying. Ray looked at Chris and Shaz with a bemused expression on his face, he wasn't used to dealing with emotional women.

"Bloody 'ell Bolls, I know yeh probably thought I'd died back there. But I'd like to at least think you'd mourn me for twenty years before moving onto Carling."

Alex looked up and turned around. There - like a phoenix from the ashes - stood Gene carrying the missing girl who he handed over to the nearest teacher. She ran to him and threw her arms around his neck, before allowing her palm to collide with the side of his face.

"What was tha' for?" Gene asked rubbing his cheek.

"That was for making me think you were dead." she replied. "And this is for not being dead." she added pulling him close and kissing him with a fierce, burning passion. For a moment they let everything else fade away and focused on the here and now. They allowed themselves to get lost in the moment until a cough from behind them caused them to break apart. They turned to see Ray stood with his "not-in-the-workplace" look, while Chris looked shock and Shaz smiled at their senior officers rare public display of affection.

"Blimey, if that's the response I get after a near-death experience. I'll have one everyday." he replied as they headed back towards their colleagues hand in hand.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"You should get that looked at," Alex said noticing a small cut above Gene's eye as they sat on a grassy knoll opposite the school.

"Stop fussing woman," he replied "I've had worst injuries from shootings."

"Please?" she asked "There might be shards of glass in it."

"Fine," he replied "But you stay here where I can keep an eye on you from other there." he added pointing over to the paramedics who were stood by the ambulance. She smiled up at him and Gene seeing someone walking towards them, he placed a light kiss on her head before walking away.

"So I see you're still with Hunt then."

Alex looked up to see Evan stood in front of her "Not that it's any of your business but yes I am." she replied, subconsciously moving back a strand of her hair with her left hand so that the sunlight caught her ring and sent sparkles dancing across his face. "What are you doing here anyway?" she asked

"Picking up Alex," he replied pointing to a girl who stood with her back to them as she talked to her friends.

"How's she coping?" Alex asked "It's probably bringing back memories," she added thinking back to the day she'd watched her parents getting blown up.

"It probably is."

"Right, we're just about done here." Gene said walking back to them and helping Alex up. "Come on the team are heading to Luigi's for a de-briefing." Then seeing a chance to get one over on a man he knew liked Alex, "Of course, you'll be relaxing and drinking fizzy water, the emotional stress of today can't have been good for Hunt junior." he added placing a protective arm around her waist making sure his hand was splayed across her still flat torso. Alex was certain that she could smell the testosterone oozing from Gene's pores and briefly wondered when the caveman's club would come out. As he led her away he couldn't resist flashing a triumphant look at Evan who looked like he'd just sucked a lemon. Alex sighed, clearly Gene couldn't let go of his jealousy over Evan.

* * *

"So come on, Guv," Ray said when they were ensconced under a cloud of smoke - which Alex was sat slightly out of. "How'd you get out alive?"

"I was the other end of the building, slightly out of reach of the bomb. Caught a bit of debris here," he replied pointing to the cut "Takes more than a bomb blast to knock me down." he added chancing a look at Alex while the rest of CID raised a glass to their unbreakable Guv. He noticed that she was lightly shaking and was looking down at the table. Over the past few months he'd grown so accustomed to her many faces for each mood that he knew that something was troubling her. "Right I'm off home. Come on Bolls." he added downing the rest of his drink.

"See you all tomorrow," she added following Gene out of Luigi's.

Later that night, Alex was curled up on the sofa with her fit tucked under her and sipping on a cup of tea.

"Hungry?" he asked noticing she was slightly pale.

"Maybe later," she replied leaning into his embrace. He ran a hand up her arm and noted that she was still lightly shaky.

"You alright?" he asked "You've been shaking like a leaf since we left the bomb site."

"I nearly lost you today, I think I'm allowed to be shaky." she replied.

"No it's more than that though. When those lawyers got blown up, you retreated into a shell and moved on autopilot for a month." he replied

"Do you really want to know?" she asked

"Course I do, I'm bloody marrying yeh in two months time." he replied "That's what I was trying to ask you earlier, did yeh have a date in mind.?"

"September 17th ," she replied without hesitation "It was my mum's birthday." she added by way of explanation.

"Alright. Now come on why so shaky around bombs?"

"Because everyone I've ever loved has been caught up in bombs."

"Go on."

"When I was eight, my parents were killed right in front of me. Someone planted a bomb under their car and set it off. Just like Tim and Caroline Price."

"Jesus, no wonder you were shaking." he replied "But my copper's nous is telling me that there's more to the story than you're telling me."

Alex sighed, in telling Gene about how her parents died, she was telling the truth. But with Molly's near death experience in the 7/7 bombings she couldn't tell him the exact truth so she'd have to edit it slightly.

"Several years ago, I had been called into work early, some big crisis, I can't really remember what. Anyway, my god-father - who was also Molly's - took her to school and someone on the bus that they caught had a bomb which they then set off…" she tailed off not wishing to relive the memories from that day. Thankfully, Molly had been unharmed but the wait for news had been tortuous.

"Shit," Gene said suddenly feeling a deep sense of guilt over the comments he'd made the night before the whole Operation Rose business about how she'd never talked about her daughter, never tried to see her. He'd accused her of being cold. How he could've said that he didn't know, his Bolly was the warmest person he knew. He then decided that he would try and mention her daughter as little as possible to try and spare her the grief and heartache associated with the loss. "Come on, let's get you something to eat and then get you to bed."

"Alright," she replied allowing him to help her off the sofa. "You're wearing a smart suit though."

"Eh?"

"At our wedding, you're going to be wearing a proper suit, not like the one you wear to work."

"It's only at a registry office."

"I don't care." she replied heading into the kitchen.

* * *

The next morning, they pulled up outside the station and stepped out into the July sunshine. It was a lovely day, not a cloud in the sky but Alex couldn't help but feel that this was the calm before the storm. They were a little later than usual due to Alex's morning sickness. Gene had tried to make her stay at home but she wasn't having any of it.

"I'll ring them later." Gene said.

"Ring who?"

"The registry office, book it now and everything else will fall into place."

Alex smiled at him as he held open the door for her. "Who are you and what have you done with Gene Hunt?"

As they walked into reception, they were planning the rest of the wedding… well Gene was discussing ways of getting Luigi to not serve the house rubbish at the reception.

"Guv, ma'am, there's someone here who wants to speak to you." Viv said interrupting her conversation. They turned to see Evan sat on the chairs.

"Bloody 'ell, I didn't know that lawyers got up this early" he commented. Alex hid a smirk behind her hand before feeling sick again and heading into the ladies. "Shaz," Gene called as he saw her walking past. "Can you show Mr White to the interview room, while I go and check on my fiancée." he added.

As he walked into the ladies, he found it easy to find Alex, as she was in the first cubicle.

"Well, there goes breakfast," she joked flushing the toilet.

"You sure, you don't want to go home?" he asked rubbing her back as they sat on the floor of the cubicle.

"No I'll be fine." she replied smiling weakly."Come on, lets go see White and then we'll sort you out." he said standing up and pulling her with him. He placed a kiss on her lips before grimacing.

"You didn't have to kiss me." she commented "I'll join you in a minute," she added walking over to the sink.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Right so what do you want White?" Gene asked entering the interview room. "Other than to waste my valuable oxygen."

"I don't particularly want to be here, but I need your help."

"Sorry, did I hear that right. You. Need my help?" he replied looking up as Alex entered the room. "'Ere Bolls, Evan White needs my help."

"Can you stop being childish, this is serious."

"Why do you need our help?" Alex asked interrupting Gene before he could make any more comments.

"It's about Alex," he replied "She's gone missing."

Alex was hit by a memory from when she was in her hospital bed in 2008:

"_You know, you gave us all a fright, Alex." Evan said from the chair beside her bed. "It was just like the time you went missing when you were 10."_

"_I don't remember that." she replied_

"_Yes, well a few weeks later you fell off the monkey bars and banged your head, lost your memory."_

"When was the last time you saw her?" Alex asked shaking out the memory.

"Last night, I checked on her before I went to bed then, when I went to get her up this morning she was gone."

"Do yeh know anyone who would want to kidnap her?" Gene asked

"I can't think of anyone." he replied "Can you just help me find her?"

"Of course we will." Alex replied "If you wait in reception, we'll assign you a family liaison officer, that's someone who will liaise between us and you." she explained at a question look from Gene. "And we'll send forensics round to examine the crime scene as soon as possible.

"Who did yeh have in mind for this liaison thing?" Gene asked as they headed back to CID

"Shaz, she's a tiny bit more intuitive and compassionate than some officers ."

"Fair dos, she can't balls it up like some." he replied thinking back to times when Ray and Chris had ballsed up surveillance operations.

"Right, you lot listen up." Gene said walking into CID "We've got a missing girl, so I want all of you working your arses off to find her."

"Yes Guv," came the chorus from CID.

"Shaz, I'd like you to be the liaison officer on this case." Alex said walking over to Shaz.

"Fab," she replied

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Right, Shaz has gone round to Evan's and when forensics have finished, she'll let us know if they've found anything important, also if she gets any new information from Evan we're her first line of call." Alex said walking into Gene's office.

"Shut the door Bolls," he said

"Why?"

"You need to rest, you look dreadful, can't have yeh passing out on me when I need yeh on you're A game."

"What about them out there?" she replied jerking her head towards CID.

"I've told them that we're reviewing evidence incase our missing girl is linked to the case we've been working on for the past month."

"You've really thought of everything haven't you?" she replied sitting in his lap and leaning her head on his shoulder.

"Listen you can shoot me down in flames if you don't like the idea but if it's girl would you like to name her Molly after your daughter?"

"Gene," she replied pulling back to look at him. "That's a lovely idea, but I couldn't I'd feel like I was betraying her memory."

"Well, like I said it was only an idea." he replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

"I'll make you a deal," she said "If it's a girl I get to name her and if it's a boy you get to name him."

"Deal," he replied sealing it with a kiss "Love you Alex," he said in all honesty.

"I love you too." she replied "I think that Alex Price's kidnapping does have something to do with the notes."

"Why?"

"Well, think back to the note from when Melanie Hale was assaulted, it mentioned 2 down 5 to go." she replied "The assault was the second crime and the kidnapping was the seventh."

"I think you might be onto something Bolls."

"Boss. Guv." Chris said knocking on the door.

"What?" Gene said as Alex stood up and Chris opened the door.

"Shaz has just been on the phone." he replied "Forensics, have just finished and they've found how the girl was taken."

"Let's fire up the Quattro."

* * *

"Right, what you got for us?" Gene said as they walked into the girl's bedroom and headed to Lorna who was the forensic on the scene.

"Well, we found fingerprints on both sides of the window which seems to imply that they came in through the window."

"That don't look big enough." Ray said looking at the window.

"You'd think that," Lorna replied "But when opened like this," she demonstrated wearing rubber gloves to stop herself from contaminating the crime scene. "You can see that it would be big enough for someone to climb through."

"Does she ever sleep with her window open?" Alex asked Evan who was standing in the doorway.

"Only in the summer," he replied.

"How long until, you can get the results back?" Gene asked

"Normally it would take about a couple of days but due to the nature of the case I can get a turn around within a few hours."

"Good," Gene said "If I wasn't taken I'd buy you a drink."

"Do you want me to hit you again?" Alex asked rubbing her temples. This case was starting to get a little too familiar to her. Largely due to the fact that it was her younger self that had gone missing.

"You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." she replied

"I feel a headache coming on."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Several hours later, Alex was stood on the roof getting some air. Out of the corner of her eye she could see her "bodyguard" having a smoke by the door while keeping an eye on her. When she'd said that she'd needed some air it was in the hope that it would give her a clear head to help her solve the case, but it hadn't helped. All she kept seeing was images from her recurring nightmare. Then things began to slide into place. The man in her nightmare had referred to her as "little girl" which meant that it was obviously her younger self, but who was the man? It had to be someone who knew Evan and Alex aswell as her and Gene. Someone who had previous experience with…her train of thought tailed off as the last piece of the puzzle slotted into place. She turned on her heel and head back down to CID closely followed by Ray.

"Gene, I think I've solved it." she replied walking into his office and closing the door.

"Finally. So who is it?"

"Who have me, you and Evan all got in common?"

"Who?"

"Little Alex Price. I…knew her parents, you rescued her - sort of - after they got blown up. Evan's her godfather. So who knows the three of us and has a link to the Price's?"

"Bolly, can you please stop talking in riddles and tell me who it is."

"Arthur Layton."

"That poxy, little scrote. Don't be daft Bolls,"

"I'm serious Gene."

"You really think he's capable of murder and organising all those crimes."

"Yes I do," she replied thinking about her dealings with him in 2008. "We know he has form for using explosives. The note saying the past will return to haunt us. The bomb planting at the school on Ash Street. Alex Price going missing. You destroying evidence - well Tim Price's video message. It all fits."

"Alex, Layton's not been on our radar for two years. He probably crawled into a sewer and died like the other rats. He was a two-bit criminal with a drug racket that we dealt with. Snouts wouldn't be scared of him."

"Fine, think what you want to think" she replied storming out of his office and CID.

"Where yeh going Drake? Drake?" he yelled at her retreating back.

"Christ that was a big one, he hasn't called her Drake for ages." Chris commented looking up at Ray and Shaz.

"It's just like the good ol' days," Ray said

"Aren't you going to go after her?" Shaz asked "You are her body guard."

"Nah, she'll sulk in the ladies or the canteen or reception. Either way she'll be fine," he replied.

Alex pulled up outside the house she shared with Gene in the unmarked car she'd taken. She wondered how long it would be before her body guard showed up. She was surprised when he hadn't followed her. She shook her head before unlocking the front door. She threw the keys on the table before going to make herself a drink. She then changed her mind and decided to go and ring Gene instead to stop him worrying.

"What?" came the pissed of voice of Gene Hunt.

"Gene, it's me."

"Where are yeh Alex?"

"At home. Don't worry I'm safe." she replied

"Still, I'm sending Ray round to keep an eye on things."

"Alright, I'll see you later." she replied hanging up the phone.

As she turned to go into the kitchen, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

"Hello Alex," came the voice from behind her before everything went black.

* * *

**Once again, sorry for another cliffhanger. If you liked it you know what to do.**


	11. Chapter 11

**I'd like to start with an apology. I'd just like to say sorry for ending the previous chapter on a cliffhanger. Once again I'd like to thank everyone who's read and reviewed so far, we're nearly at the finishing line. With any luck the next chapter will be up by Saturday at the latest with a final chapter the following week. But will it be happily ever after for Gene and Alex you'll just have to keep reading.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Ashes to Ashes. If I did the final series wouldn't be heading in the direction that it appears to be.**

* * *

Chapter Eleven

Gene rolled his eyes as he put down the phone. When she'd first stormed out of CID, he didn't know where she'd gone and he was beginning to get worried but when he'd seen Ray still sat at his desk, he'd assumed that she was still in the station just cooling off. Then she'd rung to tell him that she was at home. That had really pissed him off especially since Ray was still in CID.

"CARLING!" he yelled so loud that people on the other side of world probably heard it.

"You're in for it now mate," Chris said clapping Ray on the back while the rest of CID gave him sympathetic looks.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kicks seven types of shit out of yeh for not following my orders?" he asked the minute that Ray walked into his office. "I just got a phone call from Alex telling me that she was at home. Didn't I tell yeh that you were to keep an eye on her and if she went off on her own you were to follow her?"

"Yes Guv," he replied looking at the floor.

"Then why didn't yeh?"

"I thought she was going to go and sulk somewhere. How I was t…"

"I want you to go round to my house and keep an eye on her." Gene said cutting through Ray's protests "An' if you balls it up this time, I will see to it that your nuts get cut off and fed to a bunch of rabid ferrets. Got it?"

"Yes Guv," Ray said walking out of the Lion's den. "No Guv, three bloody bags full Guv," he muttered under his breath as he picked up his car keys.

Ray had been having a good day until he'd been called into Gene's office. He had teased Chris about Shaz's broodiness, before getting a date with Yvonne - the receptionist at that girl's school. Then the argument had happened and he'd made a mistake.

Pulling up outside the row of terraced house in Whitechapel, Ray could tell that something was wrong. Something was wrong. Something was not quite right but he couldn't put his finger on it. He got out of his car and headed up the front steps. As he drew closer he could see that the front door was slightly ajar. That's what hadn't felt quite right. From afar it looked shut but up close it was a different story. It was clear that someone had picked the lock as there was no signs of forced entry unless Alex had opened the door to anyone and they had got in that way. He used the sleeve of his jacket to push open the front door fully, that way if anything had happened he wouldn't contaminate the scene.

"Hello," he called opening the front door. When there was no answer he decided to look round the rest of the house. As he walked down the hallway, he looked in both the living room and the kitchen, but neither showed signs of anyone in them. He headed up the stairs and checked the upstairs rooms. He knocked on what he assumed was the bedroom door incase she was asleep and he didn't want to go barging in. When there was no answer he pushed open the door and had a look around. Once again there was no signs of life in that room. He chose to ignore the rumpled bedding and the undergarment hanging off one of the bedposts not wishing to think about that particular aspect of his senior officers relationship. He left the room and headed back downstairs.

It was obvious that something had happened to her. It clearly hadn't been a robbery that had left the door slightly ajar as nothing had been disturbed. There was only one thing he could do. He could hear the bollocking he would get before he'd even picked up his radio. He had no choice but to radio Gene.

* * *

Gene stood in his office throwing darts at the dartboard. He knew there was a kidnap case to solve, but due to lack of witnesses he couldn't do anything until forensics came back. He was about to beat his personal best when Viv knocked on his door.

"What is it skip?" he asked

"Forensics are back from the White house."

"Bloody 'ell I didn't know we were doing anything for Reagan."

"Very good sir." he replied handing the file over to Gene who opened it and read the results.

"Shit, she was right." he said looking at the results, feeling guilty about automatically dismissing Alex's theory about it being Layton.

"Sir?" Viv asked

Gene was about to reply when his radio crackled to life.

"Guv." came Ray's voice

"What?"

"We've got a problem." Ray replied, which Viv took as his cue to make a swift exit as he saw Gene's face darken.

The rest of CID watched through the windows as Gene talked to Ray on the radio before watching as he through it onto the floor, picking up his keys and heading out of his office and CID.

"What d'you reckon that was about?" Chris asked Shaz.

"Haven't a clue Chris," She said as she picked up her phone which had chose that moment to start ringing.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The squeal of tyres could probably be heard all the way to New Mexico as the Quattro swerved around the corners and sped through the streets of London as Gene headed back to his house. He was glad that no one else was in the car as it meant that he could look as worried as he wanted without having to hide it from anyone. All Ray had told him was that it looked like someone had picked the lock on his front door or they'd barged in when Alex had opened the door as there was no signs of forced entry and how it clearly wasn't a robbery as the only thing missing was Alex herself.

When he pulled up outside his house, he could see Ray stood in the doorway. Gene felt the anger well up inside of him and he really felt like kicking Ray to a pulp as he believed it was Ray's fault that she'd been taken. In a way it was Ray's fault but he also knew that as much as it would make him feel better, it wouldn't get either Alex back.

"Guv," Ray began as Gene approached him.

"Save it, Sergeant." Gene said "Just get out of my sight Carling. Before I really do kick seven types of shit out of yeh."

Ray knew better than to argue with Gene and also considering he had a date, he also wanted his face clear, as much as he wanted to gain a bit of sympathy from his date, he really did know better and he made a quick getaway.

Gene shut the door behind Ray before heading into the living room where he kept his whiskey. He poured himself a large one before sitting on the sofa. His mind wandered back to the nights when he and Alex had curled up and just sat and watched the television while making plans. It was then he did something he'd only done twice before in his life. He sent a silent prayer to whoever might be listening and prayed that they not only found the little girl alive and well, but that Alex was found safe aswell. He wasn't sure how he would be able to cope without her. Whether he cared to admit it or not, she had really changed him. Not just his way of policing - well he wasn't completely changed in that respect - but she'd also changed him as a human being in the same way that Sam had done before her.

As the hours passed, he was left alone with his thoughts and as the hours crept by they gradually grew darker. If he shut his eyes he just kept imagining them being called out to a desolate wasteland and finding her mutilated corpse just laying there in the same manner that they had found Christine's body.

He shook the image out of his head and downed the rest of his whiskey before getting up. He picked up his car keys and headed out to the Quattro, he couldn't be in the house without her. Once upon a time it was easy for him to be there by himself but now that she was gone, he couldn't be there with all the memories.

He drove all the way back to the station and headed straight to his office, not even saying a gruff hello to the night duty desk sergeant. As he walked through his kingdom, he looked at her desk and wondered if he'd ever see her again. _No, I will see her again._ he thought to himself. _I will find her alive. Both she and the baby will be fine._ He noticed her nameplate on her desk and smiled at the image of it saying DI Hunt in a matter of weeks.

As he sat at his desk, he poured himself another drink and swung his feet onto his desk and was once again left alone with his thoughts.

* * *

"I'm telling yeh, the Guv is really cut up about this." Ray said as he, Chris and Shaz walked into the station followed by the rest of CID. "Remember what he was like after Tyler died?" he asked Chris who nodded in reply. "I think if we don't find her and the little girl alive, it will be a lot worse." he added as they walked into CID where they saw the door to Gene's office was open but he was nowhere to be seen.

"Wonder where 'e is?" Chris asked "He's normally in by now."

"Right, you lot listen up." Gene said as he left the kitchen. "Yesterday, we only had a missing girl to find now it has gotten even more serious as our kidnapper as also taken DI Drake." he added. He was about to say something when Viv walked in followed by Evan White. "What is it White?" he asked

"I just thought you'd like to see this," Evan replied handing Gene a note "I found it pushed through the letterbox this morning."

Gene unfolded the piece of paper and read it:

"_I'm going to tell her the truth and then finish the job I was paid to do."_

When he'd finished reading the note, he picked up the nearest bin and threw it across the room. Chris had to duck to stop it colliding with his head, before watching as Gene headed into his office and slammed the door behind him with such force that the whole door shook.

"Don't take it personally," Chris said to Evan "He's just annoyed as whoever took your Alex took his Alex aswell."

"I see," Evan replied realising that now Gene had even more reasons to go after the kidnapper and that was an even greater chance of both Alex's being found alive.

"Would you like me to see you out sir?" Viv asked

"Yes," he replied before following Viv out of CID. Shaz quickly stood up and followed them as she had a few questions to ask Evan about the note.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Later that day, CID was a flurry of activity as everyone was calling all informants to see if any of them knew anything while checking statements from the door to door that uniform had been carrying out around the area where Gene lived. Shaz was in Gene's office letting him know that the informants and snouts weren't given much away and the door to doors hadn't provided much information when his phone rang.

"What?" he said picking it up.

"That's not very polite is it?" the voice on the other end replied "A hello would nice. Maybe a how have you been?"

Gene knew that voice, it was the voice of the very person he was looking for "Layton where are yeh? You bastard scumbag."

"Again, not very polite is it?" he replied "I was just enjoying a nice little chat with a couple of friends of yours."

"If you've laid so much as one finger on either of them…"

"You'll what, beat me to a pulp? You'd have to find me first." he replied "Anyway I just called to give you a message: You couldn't stop little Alex Price from knowing the truth and you couldn't protect your fiancée forever. You failed Hunt."

Gene was about to make a comment when he heard a woman screaming from the other end. A scream that he recognised as belonging to Alex, but it was all muffled.

"Where are yeh hiding them you scumbag?" he asked but it was too late as the line had gone dead.

As Shaz looked on, she was slightly surprised to see Gene looking almost scared and vulnerable and unless she was seeing things, she thought she saw some tears threaten to make an appearance. In that moment, she realised just how much Gene loved Alex. She knew he did love Alex she just hadn't realised that it was a lot greater than she'd first thought.

"Are you ok Guv?" she asked timidly incase he yelled at her.

"Yes, Shaz I'm fine." he replied in a low voice. Shaz knew she wouldn't get much else out of him so she left the office and closed the door behind her.

"What was that about Shaz?" Ray asked.

"The Guv just got a phone call from Arthur Layton. He's the one that's got them."

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Gene sat back in his chair and began plotting revenge on Layton. There was no way that he was going to let him get away with this, he would see to that he got put away for a long time. He was brought out of his thoughts by a knock on his door. He looked up to see Viv stood waiting to be given permission to enter.

"What is it?" he asked

"I found this on my desk for you, sir." Viv replied holding out an envelope.

"Who dropped it off?"

"I don't know, I'd came back from checking on someone in the cells and it was on my desk."

Gene opened it and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He unfolded it and read the note: _I sent you a little present. I don't think she'll be needing it much longer."_

Gene shook the envelope into his hand and felt something cool fall into his hand. He looked down and saw a ring with three diamond baguettes on either shoulder of the emerald. He would know that ring anywhere. It was her engagement ring. He knew what Layton's note enclosed with meant and he was now against the clock to stop Layton from carrying out his promises and to stop them finding two bodies.

"Right, get hold of every snout, grass, informant and get us anything they can on Arthur Layton and if they don't cooperate with our enquiries we'll have them nicked for any unsolved crimes we have on our books. Viv get me the last known address of Layton now." he said as everyone began to carry out the job. "Raymondo, Chris, Shaz, with me. It's time to do things the old fashioned way." he added sweeping out of CID, with Chris, Ray and Shaz following at his heels.

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**Hope you liked it, if you did, you know what to do.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Okay, here is chapter twelve (A tiny bit later than originally planned). Thanks again to the people who have read and reviewed so far. After this it's just the epilogue to go before it's all over.**

**Disclaimer:**** I don't own Ashes to Ashes, or a piece of dialogue from the end which I borrowed from The OC and slightly changed.**

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Chapter Twelve

As they pulled up outside a house that had clearly seen better days, Gene couldn't help but feel that this might be nothing but a futile mission with no hope of a decent result. That particular thought didn't fill him with a warm, fuzzy feeling. They had to find them before time ran out. They got out of the car and stared at the house. The garden was overgrown, hedges were taller than most others on the road, the grass looked more like a jungle than a front garden. The door looked as though one strong gust of wind might just blow it off it's hinges. The windows showed signs of mould beginning to fester. They could tell that he wasn't house proud because on the windows were dried bird faeces.

"Are you sure that this is the right address?" Ray asked

"This is the one that Skip gave us." Chris replied

"It doesn't look like a place where you'd hide someone you'd kidnapped." Ray commented "Surely a shit hole like this would start to attract attention."

"Yeah, but they'd want you to think they wouldn't hide someone here." Chris said "Put us on the back foot like."

"Will you two shut up." Gene said growing tired of the two of them. Testing the door to see if it was locked which it was. Gene gave Ray the signal and Ray backed up preparing to break the door down. Ray ran to the door and smashed it open. "Right me and Ray will check upstairs. You two check down here."

"What we looking for Guv?" Chris asked earning him looks from his colleagues. "Oh," he said as the penny dropped. Ray made a comment under his breath before following Gene up the stairs.

Looking in the upstairs rooms, it was obvious that no one had been here for ages. There were layers of dust coating almost every surface. Gene went to look at one end of the upstairs landing while Ray looked at the other. Gene opened a door and looked round the room. Almost everything was covered with a white sheet. Gene began to pull off the sheets to check underneath them but there was nothing out of the ordinary about any of the objects in the room. Sighing to himself, he headed back out onto the landing where he saw Ray stood underneath a hatch pointing upwards. Gene nodded at him and Ray pulled the cord and stood back as it opened up to reveal the stairs up into the attic.

As they looked around the attic, it was quite clear to them that they were following a dead end. The attic had never been used. Except to store a few boxes. Just out of curiosity Ray opened one of the boxes and looked inside. All that was in it was a few blankets and cushions.

"Well, that was a waste of time," Gene said as they descended back onto the upstairs landing.

Meanwhile, Chris and Shaz were searching the rooms down stairs. Chris had took the kitchen well Shaz looked in a room that could be passed off as a living room. All that was in it was a ratty sofa, a carpet that Shaz could only described as being stained with dried blood and drink stains, and a pair of moth eaten curtains. Shaz looked up to the ceiling and saw several cobwebs. She quickly headed back out of the room as she really didn't like spiders.

Chris hadn't had much luck while looking in the kitchen either. All he'd found was some rotten fruit and when he'd opened the fridge he'd nearly been sick at the smell, there had been a few extremely out of date products mainly milk and cheese. Chris went over to the bin and opened the lid. Remembering what he'd learnt about how bins could tell you must things about a person as people threw out all manner of items that they didn't think would incriminate them. However, he hadn't found anything useful not even one strip of clothing. He bypassed something that at first glance looked a piece of meat, but something about it caught his eye. He looked closer and realised what it was.

"Guv!" he called.

"What is it Christopher?" Gene asked walking into the kitchen. Chris said nothing but pointed towards the bin. Gene looked in it and saw what Chris had seen. It was a decaying human finger. "Well at least we know he's been here recently." Gene commented his voice tinged with relief as he knew it didn't belong to Alex. He knew every inch of her body and knew that it wasn't her finger but that didn't prove anything. The only person he could see it belonging to was Christine. Gene looked in a drawer and found a small plastic which he wrapped the finger in. "Evidence," he said in reply to a look from Chris. Gene knew that the finger, teamed with pictures of Christine's mutilated body and Neil Jones description of his boss they would have enough to send Layton down for murder as well as other crimes.

They headed back out into the hallway where they saw Shaz stood by a door which was locked and she was trying to pick the lock with the pin of the brooch that she was wearing. After a few moments she got the lock opened and began to head down the stairs using a torch that Ray had passed her. Gene, Ray and Chris followed her down the stairs and realised that they must be in a cellar of some sort. In the limited light, they could make out a desk and a chair. Chris saw a light switch on the wall and flicked it on.

As the room became bathed light they could see that they had found the place Layton had been operating from as there was a phone on the desk covered with pictures of the various crime scenes before and after the incidents had happened.

"Guv" Shaz said noticing something white in the corner. They headed over to where Shaz was stood and they could see a white jacket which they recognised as belonging to Alex. By it was a lot of a spare rope and two blankets.

"I think we've found where he hid them." Gene said "The only question is where are they now?"

"Guv, I think I've found something." Chris said looking at the wall.

"A brain hopefully," Ray muttered yet he still moved closer with the rest of they looked a little bit closer and just above the blankets they could see one word had been wrote in blood on the peeling paint just below a bent nail :

_BOATS_

The four shared a look before heading back up the stairs and out to the car. Gene felt as though everything was starting to go right. As they got into the car, Gene grabbed his radio.

"How's it going skip?" he asked

"Not good sir, nobody's talking and if they have seen him they're keeping shut."

"Anything about boats?"

"Not yet sir."

"Keep me informed." he said "Even the slightest hint of him and I want to know about it."

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"He's going to stop you, you do know that don't you?" Alex asked as Layton tied her feet together.

"He'll have to find me first, by which time both you and the girl will be in your watery graves." he sneered as he looked for some rope to tie her hands together.

"He will find you, I've no doubt about that. If I know Gene Hunt, he will stop you in time to save the both of us and leave you rotting in a jail cell somewhere" she replied sending a silent prayer that Gene would find them and save both versions of her. "Either way, you're little plan to kill me and her, won't succeed." she added knowing full well that her younger self would once again meet Layton."Is that so?" he asked pulling out a piece of cloth.

"Yes," she replied she had complete faith in Gene.

"You know, you're right," he replied putting the piece of cloth around her mouth to gag her. "Maybe I'll wait until he gets here to kill you." he added pushing her into a small room where she barely had enough room to breathe let alone stand. It was probably two inches taller than she was and an inch or two wider.

'_Hurry up, Gene.' _she thought _'We need you. I need you.' _she added thinking about herself, the baby and little Alex Price.

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As they drove through the streets of London, Chris, Ray and Shaz all noticed that the Guv seemed to be on edge. Whenever he thought they weren't looking, he'd fiddle with his radio to make sure that it was switched on. At one point they saw him even look the tiniest bit scared and that was an emotion they never thought they'd see reflected in Gene's eyes. They began to prepare themselves for the worst. They knew exactly what Layton was like. However, they didn't dare voice their concerns to Gene knowing full well that it would not be received well at all.

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Alex slid down the wall and pulled her feet up towards her chest. It bought her a bit more space, but not enough. _Well this is definitely not the room from my dream_ she thought _That was a lot bigger than this and a bit more comfortable. _She couldn't tell what time it was as her arms were tied behind her back so she couldn't reach her watch. There wasn't even a window for her to look through. It was as though he'd just cleaned out a broom cupboard and shoved her into it. _Well, at least if I die here, it's a fitting end to my time in this life. It's the same boat I woke up on, _she thought. She felt her tears well up and slowly start to fall. _Come on Gene, save me…save us,_ she thought hoping that Gene would hear her calling for him.

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Shaz looked on as Ray, Chris and Gene gave one of their snouts a kicking while she manned the radio. She knew he'd said he was going back to doing things the old fashioned way but she didn't think that this would get them any closer to finding Alex. But on the other hand, the word boats had led to them about to check the docks when Gene had spotted one of his snouts.

"Guv," came Viv's voice through the radio

"He's a bit busy at the minute," Shaz replied "Doing things the old fashioned way."

"Well can you tell him that one of the snouts has seen Layton hanging around _The Lady Di_ as they saw him there this morning with two people and it's still docked in the same place that it was two years ago."

"Brill," Shaz said running to tell Gene the news feeling relief that they had nearly found them. "Guv!" she yelled

"What is it Shaz? Only we're a little bit busy here." he replied turning to see her running towards them. He knew what he wanted to hear her say, but he daren't get his hopes up in case they were dashed.

"They've found where Layton's hiding." she replied "If we get there fast enough, we can save them."

In that one moment, everything changed the look of fear in Gene's eyes seemed to dim only to be replaced with a look of fierce determination. Gene knew his internal anguish was nearly at an end and he let out his battle cry: "Let's fire up the Quattro." he said _Hold on Alex, I'm coming for you._

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Alex's head snapped upright. She couldn't put her finger on why, but somewhere deep inside of her something clicked. She'd heard his words in her mind as though, they were linked mentally. She felt herself smile at the knowledge that her turmoil - and that of her younger self was at an end. Gene was coming for them. Just like he'd promised her, he'd always come if she called for him.

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As the evening began to fall, the Quattro pulled up at the docking site of _The Lady Di_ with uniformed back up in case things turned bad. Gene took one look at the boat and prayed that Layton was still there and that he hadn't got wind of the fact that they had finally found him.

"Right, you stay here," Gene said turning to face the uniformed officers "You only step foot on that boat, if Ray puts the call out. We don't want him to get lost in confusion. Got it?"

"Yes Guv," they chorused.

Gene nodded at them, before turning and heading towards the boat, followed by Chris, Ray and Shaz. He squared his shoulders and readied himself for a fight. They looked around the boat. They tried all the doors only to find them locked. There was no sign of Layton anywhere. Gene slowly began to feel the fear eat away at his determination. Then he heard a voice behind him.

"Ah, Mr Hunt, I wondered when you'd finally show up."

All four turned in unison to see Layton, emerging from a door.

"Where are they Layton?" Gene asked

"In two different places yet the same." he replied cryptically.

"I'm not in the mood for games, so I'm going to say this again only slightly louder: Where?" he shouted.

As they watched the two men stare each other down, Shaz heard something from one of the locked doors to the right of her. She nudged Chris and tilted her head towards the door she heard the noise from. It was muffled screaming. They began trying all they could with Ray's help to get it open.

"How d'you know your not too late?"

"I'd know," Gene replied. He didn't want to go into specifics but he knew if anything had happened to her, he'd have known straight away. "We're going to send you down for a long time. We've got all the evidence we need."

"You'll have to catch me first," he replied pulling out a gun and firing it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

From her small prison, Alex could hear Gene yelling at Layton. She thanked the heavens that her throat wasn't dry so she was able to scream. She knew it would be muffled, but she prayed that someone would hear her. When she heard the gunshot, she began to panic. In her dreams, before Layton had showed up, in the 7x7 room she always heard a gunshot. She prayed that no one had got injured. She continued to scream in case anyone did hear her.

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Shaz got up from the spot on the deck where Chris had thrown her to protect her from the bullet.

"Chris, are you alright?" she asked

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied "So's Ray," he added looking up to see Ray getting up off the floor.

Shaz was about to ask another question when she heard the screaming start again. "Quick, help me get this door open." she said.

After several attempts, the finally got it open. When they did they saw that Alex was fine she was just a bit tied up.

"Where's Gene?" she asked the minute they un-gagged her.

"I don't know, boss," Chris replied working on untying her arms while Ray set about untying her feet "When Layton fired the gun, I pushed Shaz out of the way. I didn't see him." Alex felt tears well up in her eyes. She didn't want the first gunshot she always heard in her dream to be one that killed Gene. Ray looked up and noticed the look on her face.

"I saw him," he replied helping her to her feet, "When Layton fired the gun, I ducked down, but looked up in time to see Layton disappearing through that door," he added pointing to the one they'd seen him come from when they'd first got to the boat. "With the Guv, following close behind." he said just as another gunshot rang out.

Alex thought back to her dream, she'd always heard a second gunshot before everything went black. They all hurried through the door and down the stairs, where they found themselves outside a small room. Alex smiled at the sight. There in the door way stood Gene carrying her younger self. He was always there when she needed him. He was literally her knight in shining armour, whether she was a little girl or a grown woman, he always came to her rescue.

"Is she alright?" Alex asked noticing she didn't have her eyes open.

"She's fine, think she's passed out from the shock though," Gene replied "Ray get two ambulances, one for her and one for 'im." he added jerking his head behind him where they saw Arthur Layton led on his front. "Shot him in the leg." he said moving past them and heading up the stairs with one Alex in his arms and another at his side.

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Alex sat on the bonnet of the Quattro, watching Evan thanking Gene for rescuing Alex. She saw Evan get into the ambulance before Gene turned and headed to where Alex was sat.

"Nice view, isn't it?" she commented looking out over the Thames, as the setting sun cast pink tinges across the sky.

"If yeh say so, love." he replied sitting down next to her. She leaned her head on his shoulder and felt his arm pull her closer. Chris, Ray and Shaz got into one of the police cars and headed back to the station, leaving Gene and Alex alone so that they could have a moment to themselves. "Listen, I'm sorry about not believing you when you first said that Layton was behind all this."

"Don't worry about it," she replied.

"I've got something of yours." he said

"You have?" she asked

"Yes," he replied getting something out of his coat pocket. "I didn't have time to go and get it's box, but here yeh go." he added taking her left hand and sliding her ring onto it before kissing her. "Come on, let's go to the hospital, we need to charge a scummy bastard, check on a ten year old girl and get you checked out to make sure you're ok."

"I spoke to a paramedic, I'm fine." she replied.

"I want you to get checked out by proper doctors, the ones that deal with women's things." he said getting into the car "I need to know that everything is ok with the both of you."

"Are you going to be overbearingly protective for the rest of my pregnancy?" she asked jokingly as she too climbed in.

"Course, I bloody am." he replied as they drove off.

Alex leaned against the car while she waited for Gene to finish talking to her younger self and Evan. She had told Gene that it would be hard for the girl to remember anything as she knew from experience that in the years to come she wouldn't be able to remember anything. She sighed and looked up at the night sky. He'd sent her off to get checked out, while he went to charge Layton. She placed an arm around herself protectively and smiled.

"Well, was everything alright?" Gene asked approaching her.

"Yeah, better than alright." she replied giving him a smile.

Half hour later, they pulled up outside of Luigi's. Alex knew she'd have to tell Gene now, as he would probably drink his weight in alcohol in celebration of the result that they had got and proably wouldn't remember if she told him when they got home.

"Gene, I found something out today when I was getting checked out."

"What?" he replied, worrying that she'd lied earlier and everything was not alright.

"Well, the doctor did a few checks and discovered something." she said "Well, you remember our deal about naming the baby?"

"Yes," he replied "If it's a girl you get choose the name and if it's a boy, I get to choose the name." he clarified.

"Well, it would appear that one of us could be choosing two names." Alex said looking at Gene's face who was an expression of sheer confusion. "It's going to be twins." she added seeing his expression change form confusing to understanding.

"Bloody hell," came his reply. "I guess we should start looking for a bigger house." he added.

"Are we alright?" she asked him

"Course we are. I've told you before Bolly we're unbreakable."

"Good," she said "Because I've got a feeling we've just got in way over our heads." .

As they walked into Luigi's they were met by a big round of applause from their colleagues. Once the noise had died away into a quiet drone in the background, Gene whispered something into Alex's ear. She turned to face him and gave a small nod.

"Oi, Luigi." he called "Get us a bottle of champagne, I'm gonna be a daddy. Bolly kecks here has got two buns in the oven."

Alex smiled as the quiet drone of noise dropped into total silence while the news sunk in before the cheers began and one by one everyone began to congratulate them. In that moment, Alex knew that no matter what came her way in the future, Gene would be right by her side and it was going to be one crazy rollercoaster ride.

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**So, Gene managed to rescue Alex, and the happy ending is theirs. The epilogue should be uploaded within the next week to tie up a few things.**


	13. Epilogue

**I'd like to start off by thanking everyone who has read or reviewed The End is Where we Start From. This is just a little epilogue to show what happened after the story ended. The ending wasn't orignally going to have the funeral but I felt that there was someone else who probably needed a happy ending too.**

**Disclaimer: As per usual, I don't own Ashes to Ashes.**

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Epilogue

July 2008

Alexandra Elizabeth Hunt looked at her reflection in the mirror. The years had been good to her but today she felt every bit of her 62 years. She looked sideways at the late edition of the newspaper and paled once more. She'd already been sick when she first saw the headline and was glad that Gene was out with Ray and Chris, as it would've meant answering questions that she wasn't sure she could answer just yet. She really wished that they were back in their villa in Spain and not back in Blightly today of all days, but her eldest daughter (by two minutes) Jessica was getting married and she just had to have a July wedding. She didn't know why her daughter was getting married at twenty four but that was straying from the point.

It had all happened earlier today, but for Alex it had been twenty seven years since it had happened. Twenty seven years in which she'd tried to: fight against destiny, lost people she'd loved for a second time, fell in love, got married and had three beautiful children (one set of twin girls and a son) all of whom she was extremely proud of. Jessica was a teacher at a primary school in West London, her twin sister Ava was on her way to becoming a designer and their son (named by Gene as per their agreement all those years ago) Sam was following in both his parents footsteps. He'd achieved a first in psychology and had not long enrolled in the force. Her marriage to Gene was still going strong, they still fought like cat and dog as they were both passionate people but the majority of their arguments had been resolved in the bedroom. She looked at her watch and saw that it was half past four and roughly 7 and a half hours ago she'd been shot even though for her twenty seven years had happened since then. She wondered what Molly was doing now, did she even know that her mother had been shot. She realised that in about a day or two her younger self that was currently lying somewhere with a bullet in her brain would be dead. She felt the beginnings of a headache and briefly wondered if the cause was the physical memory of the bullet or from thinking about the incident too much.

She took another at the headline glaring at her:

_MET DETECTIVE MISSING AFTER HOSTAGE SITUATION_

She began to contemplate what she would eventually tell Gene when he read the paper or saw it on the news. She sighed she was supposed to be getting for the rehearsal dinner, and in a dark corner of her mind she wondered if her husband would drink enough to not want to reach the news.

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Later that night, they walked through the door of their suite in the hotel where the wedding would be taking place on Saturday afternoon. The rehearsal dinner had been lovely and had reduced Alex to tears when Jessica had made a speech in which she'd said that in twenty five she hoped that her and Steve were just as happy and still as much in love as her parents were.

"Do yeh remember our wedding day?" Gene asked

"How could I forget it?" she replied "I was pregnant with Jessica and Ava, Ray made an interesting speech about how he always knew that there was something going on between us and how he knew that you had it bad from the minute you realised that I was the new Detective Inspector and Chris got so drunk that he had to sleep it off in one of the flats above Luigi's." she replied "Oh and I'll never forget the look on Ray's face when Yvonne had caught the bouquet even though they'd only been dating for two months. It really scared him" she added thinking back to the moment when Ray's girlfriend - who eventually made an honest man out of him - had caught the bouquet.

"I miss him you know," Gene said cutting through her thoughts.

"Who? Ray? You saw him earlier" Alex replied as Chris, Shaz, Ray and Yvonne had been at the rehearsal dinner. Mainly because the four were old family friends, Joanna and David (Chris and Shaz's children) were friends with Jessica, Ava and Sam. Plus Jessica's fiancé Steve was Ray's nephew.

"No Luigi, yeh daft mare." Gene replied

"I know, I miss him too," she said "It wasn't the same after he died was it?" she added. Luigi had died of a major heart attack in the summer of 1986 not long after Sam had been born, things at Fenchurch East hadn't been the same after that day.

"I think his death started the break up of our team." Gene commented

"Well that and your promotion of course." Alex said. Not long after Luigi had died, Gene got a call offering him the position of Superintendent up in his old stomping ground and the whole family had relocated to Manchester. Chris and Shaz had stayed in London while Ray and Yvonne had moved to Bristol after Ray got offered a DI position at one of the police stations.

She sat down on the sofa, next to Gene after handing him a drink. As Gene moved to switch on the TV, she felt a sharp pain flit across her forehead.

"Yeah I'm just going to freshen up." she replied heading towards the bathroom. He watched her leave, the look of concern growing in his eyes growing with every step she took until his attention was claimed by a news report on the television.

From the bathroom, she could hear the sound of Simon McCoy's voice. Then she heard the words that she'd been dreading all day:

"_Fears are growing for the safety of missing Detective Inspector Alex Drake who was last seen driving away from the South bank after…"_

"Alex, could you come here for a moment." Gene called out drowning out the rest of the report.

She sighed, she knew this was it. She walked out to the main room. She looked at him as he waved in the direction of the TV where there was a picture of herself twenty seven years younger.

"Do yeh remember all those years ago when I held a tape in front of yeh and said 'If I mean anything at all to you, Alex, you'll talk to me.'?" he asked. Alex nodded in reply. "And then you told me about how yeh were from the future." he added "An' how I didn't believe yeh. Well I'm going to ask you again and this time I swear I'll believe yeh."

"It all started when I was taking Molly to school on the day of her twelfth birthday. Today, but it feels like a lifetime ago…it was a lifetime ago. She was reading from the case file of one of the colleagues I was researching…Sam Tyler. I remember it so vividly as she was reading it out loud:

"'_My name is Sam Tyler, I had an accident and I woke up in 1973. Was I mad? In a coma? Or back in time? Whatever had happened it was like I was on a different planet. If I could figure out why I was here than maybe I could get back home.' Yeah whatever, that is so lame."_

_"Return the classified document thank you. What did Evan get you for your birthday Mols?" …_

She sat back down next to him and told him everything and leaving nothing out. She also told him how the end of her life in 2008 was the start of her new life with him, and the rest of the gang in the 1980's.

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It was a strange feeling, being at your own funeral, or so Alex reasoned as she and Gene sat at the back of the tiny church were her funeral was being held. She didn't know why they were here. It made her regret 'accidentally on purpose' running into Evan outside St. John's hospital on the day that her younger self died. When he'd told her why he was there, Alex had portrayed the right amount of sadness for an old acquaintance. He'd then asked her if she and Gene would mind attending the funeral as it was thanks to them that she hadn't been killed by Layton in 1983.

"_We don't have to go," Gene had said earlier that day._

"_No, I want to go, get some closure. See Molly one last time." she replied__._

And that was how she had come to be here at her own funeral. They left the church, with the rest of the congregation and loitered at the back as the coffin was lowered into the ground. Alex was glad that she was being buried next to her parents, it felt right…to her at least. She caught sight of Molly stood beside Evan with tears streaming down her cheeks. As she watched her daughter cry, Alex felt her own tears begin to form and fall.

"You ok?" Gene asked.

"Yes, it's just no mother likes to see her child upset. Even if it's one you haven't seen for 27 years." she replied wiping her tears away. Gene followed Alex's eye line and saw who she was looking at. "Ok, lets go." she added. As they turned to leave, they heard someone come up behind them.

"Alex, Gene, you decided to come after all." Evan said catching up with them. "It means a lot to me. You did help me get custody after all."

"It was no trouble at all." Alex replied "Anyway, we have to be going, our daughter Ava wants to give us a preview of some of her new collection before she has her interview at the Fashion council next month to see if she'll get a slot at London Fashion week."

"Ok, but would you two mind waiting here a moment before you go, there's someone I'd like you to meet." he replied before heading back to the graveside.

"You don't think he means…" Alex tailed off turning to face Gene.

"Dunno Lady B," he replied. She smiled at him as he used one of his many old nicknames for her.

"Alex, Gene, this is Molly, she was Alex's daughter." Evan said introducing them to a 12 year old girl with mousey hair, and had Alex's eyes. "Molly, this is Gene and Alex Hunt they…" Evan tailed off as he noticed Molly looking up at Alex inquisitively.

"Just like Sam Tyler," Molly muttered under her breath before moving over to Alex and hugging her. Alex was startled for a moment before reciprocating the hug. "You were right, you said I might see you one last time." she said. Gene watched as Evan picked up the letter that had fallen from Molly's jacket pocket. The letter which Alex had given her the day she died.

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**I hope you liked it. If you did you know what to do. There are plans for a sequel, which isn't going to have any drama, just showing what happened in the 25 years between chapter 12 and the epilogue.**


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